Pandemic Perfect Living Room

I have never lived in a place more than 1,000 square feet in my entire adult life. I have lived in many apartments and one very small house ... but none of them more than roughly 1,000 square feet. Now the Golden Valley house is a whopping 2,148 square feet! For me it’s huge and the rooms are larger than anything I’ve ever had but really it’s pandemic perfect.

The “OG“ Living Room - The green dream!

Since we moved in about a year and a half ago we’ve very slowly begun to learn more about those who lived here before. It is clear they loved their home no matter how dated it is, it was well cared for. So we‘ve chatted a little with neighbors and learned that the first owners lived here many many years. They raised kids, probably had Grandkids. They were happy and loved the house and it shows. It might be dated but they did care for it.

We’ve learned that she LOVED gardening and greenery. This explains the living room. Plus I think that green was a highly fashionable color once upon a time. At any rate one day the sweet old garden loving lady passed away peacefully in a chair in the living room.

I have such a wonderful mix of feelings about this. On one hand how sad death always is. On the other hand how wonderful to pass away at a ripe old age peacefully in your chair in the comfort of your own beloved home on cheerful green carpet seems like the best case scenario. Isn’t it ironic though to die in a living room? I kinda love that irony,

When we took possession of the house, the lovely green carpet was gone and replaced with beige. Our attempt to fill it with our existing apartment scale furniture was sad as you can see.

We never did like these couches. They were small and uncomfortable especially for 6’ 4” Chris. So when the pandemic hit we decided to purchase a sofa that we were both comfortable on and soon we learned that’s hard. He’s 6’ 4” and I am 5’ 6” and apparently height is a thing when trying to find something comfortable you can both sit on. We shopped and shopped but ended up agreeing on Pottery Barn’s ”The Big Sur” sectional.

Then we decided that since a sectional was coming it would be a good idea to replace the floor and remodeling swung into full force. We ended up replacing the floors, painting the walls, replacing the trim, installing can lights, hanging curtains, buying more furniture and voila.

The cat and the dog adore the new space as do we. I like to think the past owners wouldn’t mind either.

One night Chris and I were relaxing on our new sofa playing video games when I made a comment that it might be nice to have a larger TV simply because I had trouble seeing it. It was just a comment, I meant nothing real by it. The very next day Chris came home with a huge TV.. I was in shock and he hung it on the wall. Once past the shock I realized it really bugged me that it just kinda hung there in the middle of the wall. As such I had hm frame out the TV “nook” and I painted it white and hung some wallpaper in it. I think it turned out ok.

Well what started out as a sofa purchase ended up turning into a living room re-do. It was a lot of work but we’re so glad we did it. The room is so much more comfortable for both of us.