television; ikea anga; backsplash

I’ll start off with a non-kitchen picture.  Finally. 

What’s new here? 

-We decided to paint the fireplace white.  We stripped the layers of old paint and varnish, picked, scraped, sanded, primed and painted.  The inside of the fireplace was also painted black. 

-We mounted the television.  The wire situation is yet to be addressed.  There are a few issues.  One, we need longer cables so that everything can comfortably run from the TV to the shelf with the components.  Also, cord management is yet to be resolved.  It’s looking like running everything through flat, paintable tracks is going to be our option.  We considered cutting a channel through the drywall and plaster deep enough to completely submerge the tracks, then re-refinishing the wall.  This just seems like a big job for a minor detail.  (Side Note: Wii Tennis is even more fun.  yeah - I'm pro.)

-The shelf is Ikea’s Anga series.  It fit the space, offered lots of storage and the glass shelves keep the brick in view.

-The base moulding is going in. 

Now something about the kitchen.  We decided on the Marrakesh tile blend from Modwalls – these pictures are from their site.  

drywall finishing; priming

We’re making big progress over here at Project Rowhouse. 

The drywall finishing is finally complete (on the first floor).  For the most part, we’re really happy with the results.  I was quite nervous when we started the process, and we still have much to learn, but most of the errors that we made were fixable with some determination, patience and rigorous use of various sanding implements, i.e. screens, sandpaper and blocks.  Here are some in progress shots – these were taken just after the first coat of filler:

And these were taken tonight.  Primer is on the walls and the smell of KILZ is in the air – it’s intoxicating.  Literally.  

For Drywall tips, I found THIS site helpful (and many others resulting from your basic search).  I also called my Dad quite a few times, email me for his phone number – I kid. 

One new way of getting help that we’ve been taking advantage of is searching YouTube for demonstrations of various jobs.  Sometimes seeing someone do something helps with the explanation.  

ceiling fan... in the living area?

Do you all have thoughts on this?  I understand the utility.  Completely.  Although, Craig and I differ in opinion and I figured a pulse of the web might help.  Firstly, Craig gets pretty hot... literally (let alone, metaphorically - heyyy); secondly, a fan can move lethal dog-fart quickly out of the room; and lastly, I have a deep hatred for fans that are loud enough to warrant a volume increase to the current entertainment device (i.e. every fan not attached to the ceiling).  I need some affirmation that it's not a terrible idea.  The 'future' living room is the middle of the three rooms on the first floor (rowhouses are not only a row of houses side-by-side; typically the interior rooms are also row-like).  A fan will most certainly be a fantastic way to keep air moving in the window'less middle, but I wonder what interior design-lovin', like-minded folks might think?

Does a ceiling fan really kill a room?

Is placing a ceiling fan anywhere other than the porch of a Georgian plantation sinful?  

I feel like the first thing "designers" do upon a home makeover of extreme proportion is rip out the ceiling fans.  Our plans are not really contingent upon the opinion of [insert ear plugs now] Ty Pennington, but I do wonder what your thoughts might be?