Progress with Blackmail on the Side

Some of progress at my parent's house.

Here are before pictures of the living room and dining room. The 3 rooms upstairs are still underway, but in the final stages. The radiators downstairs were removed, and replaced with baseboard heating. I pulled out the fireplace insert to provide a less efficient but far prettier fireplace. The outside of the house is brick, and there was no insulation, so we had foam insulation pumped in from the inside. This meant holes in the walls, and lots of them. One hole every 10-12 inches in a grid, on all outside walls. Once this one done, I filled the holes, then skim coated all the walls, before priming and painting them. I removed the cheesy looking casing at the top of the walls, and replaced it with a generous crown we had custom milled. The lime green molding in the paneling was pressed with a pattern, so all of that was removed, and replaced with a more appropriate molding for the house.

I think the dog (that's Michael) adds the most warmth to the room. So my Mom picked out a new runner for the stairs and hallway. The estimate for it came in at $2,900. She was really unhappy about that, because she loved the rug she'd found, but she knew that was just too high. She kept saying, it's okay, I'll find something else, but she sounded a little beaten. Finally my Dad said, "Okay, order the runner." I yelled out, I heard that. Mom was really happy, so the next day she called the rug place, and found out she was quoted on some ridiculous 45 foot continuous rug, 13 feet wide, that had to be cut down to 32" for the stairs! The actual rug she needed would only cost $1,100. She was thrilled.

The next day I asked, "How did Dad react when you told him he was saving $1800. on the rug?"

"I didn't tell him, and I'm not going to" she answered. "Now I can get my curtains too."

I laughed, thought a minute, and said, "Don't you mean now we can get our curtains?"