Remodel update - Front room

In the front room, we decided to remove all the pony walls, demo the built-in book case, build in a new closet, and refinish the fireplace. Oh - and raise the floor a foot or so... It was sunken before and we wanted to "update" that.

Here are pics from before we moved into the house 7 years ago:

Please note the lovely wall color... also the fireplace is a ton of masonry, covered by wood paneling. As it would turn out, that tile in the entry would be the most difficult of all our flooring to demo out. It was tile on top of tile on top of tile. And that original tile was laid with CEMENT not thinset.

When we moved in, we painted the walls (and the walls behind the built-in book case), got rid of the popcorn ceilings and also got rid of the brass fixtures. A few years later, we updated the off-off-white trim to bright white. This was the shape of that area before the remodel:

Here are the remodel progress pics!

After Day 1:

After the wood covering was removed:

Bricks on the ground, bricks on the ground.... lookin' like a fool with your bricks on the ground.

Holy shiz! We gained a whole foot (at least) with everything removed!!!

Take a look around at the other framing work (and my cute photo-bomber) - After Day #9:

Now it was time to raise the floors (Day #17):

Then glue and screw the plywood on top (Day #19):

The leftover framing has disappeared below behind sheetrock (Day #21):

I'm sorry mama. I never meant to hurt youuuuuuu. I never meant to make you cry but tonight, I'm framing out my closet... (Day #24 - a/k/a Christmas Eve):

Day #31:

That top right corner of the crown was (apparently) a real bear!

At this point, I wanted them to add insulation under the raised wood floor. I know it won't ever have the same sound as the concrete slab, but it was sounding VERY hollow. So on Day #40, they cut some holes in the floor to blow insulation. I had a small heart attack with this photo:

But it turned out to be the right call! Here is Day #45:

Floors are down, walls are painted and there are holes in the floor for the plugs we have added in the raised floor.

Between Day 45 and today, they have worked on the electrical in that room, added and painted base boards and we've met with the mantle designer (although we don't have a sketch of that quite yet). But the floors are covered in paper so the pics aren't quite as fun.