From Garage to Family Room

Well, we really did it! Our one car-1951 size- garage has been re-invented as our new, and much loved family room. Our framer, Luis, did an amazing job.  He framed the new closet where our central AC/Heat now lives. Crucial for us here in south central Texas. No more noisy window units-woohoo. He also framed for our wood burning fireplace. I know-a fireplace in Texas? Hey, we're relocated Yankees, what can I say. The skinny, dangerous concrete steps were framed over. After all that, he installed all the rest of our new windows and the set of French doors! (a later post)

This is the only before picture of my laundry room through the door. Go ahead, use your imagination, it was dark and not very pretty.

I wish we could have kept the ceiling as is, but with the heat here it was cost prohibitive.

 

While we did hire out the sheetrock work, we did the insulation ourselves.

 The floor was not perfectly level. Go figure, a 1951 garage floor not level? Anyway, that meant no wood and no ceramic tile. What to do...I installed a vinyl floating floor that looks like Hickory. So easy and really inexpensive. So far no problems whatsoever and we really like the fact it's waterproof. Spills, dogs no problem!

So, we've painted, tiled the surround, built the mantel and brought in the furniture.  There are still things I want to do and find for this room. It's still a work in progress. But, at the end of the day, we get to sit and relax in front of the fire.  Except there's really no room on the sofa-the three dogs and the cat have dibs on it!

Oh, by the way, I actually opened a shop on Etsy. You can access it from the link on the sidebar. I'm selling pillow covers, shams, duvets and other things not yet listed. I'm also taking orders for custom items.  I've not done an Etsy shop before, so I'm open to ideas and suggestions if you have any. Thanks so much!

ann marie