Project - Living Room

Let me please start by filling you in on a little secret. The very quick improvements to the kitchen are NOT done. Nope. It's all in the details and in the details my husband procrastinates. I love the details and have requested the use of the paint brush to complete the details but he isn't handing it over. So it remains incomplete. And therefore, I do not have photos to share of the finished project. Again, just a friendly reminder, Do Not Hold Your Breath.
Now let's move on to the living room. The living room was the first room that was sprayed with the orange peel texture many, many years ago. I do believe that my sweet darling BF (at the time that's what he was) put primer over the texture but nothing more. Along the way (wedding time period - 6 years ago), I got crazy and bought paint and painted 2.5 walls. I would have painted them all but I couldn't get to the other wall sections due the amount of stuff being stored against them and said BF was not going to help. So we moved on. Then in August of 2005 (pregnant), Roy decides that we need to upgrade the windows in the living room to the double-paned low argon E insulated vinyl that he so loves and is supposed to save us a fortune in energy costs...
Well, then he decides that we can't upgrade the windows without putting in central a/c because he is not putting a window unit in the new window. He was positive that the window a/c unit would damage the vinyl. Really? Doesn't make sense to me and I'm sure it was just his wild hair that made a mountain out of a mole hill, but get central a/c we did. That's another story.
Back to the windows in the living room. So to put in the new windows, the whole front of the house (living room portion) needs to be torn out - that's right - to the elements folks. See there was some old termite damage in the corners - top and bottom and that needed to be fixed. And then, Roy modified the size of the new windows so he had to build a new frame for them to sit in. So in Texas, in the middle of August, the whole front of my house was open to the elements. Very fun. I went to G&G Sheetz house.
Well, once the windows were in and the a/c was working brilliantly, Roy put up new drywall in the living room around the windows and then stopped. Yep, stopped. See, he was working on the closet project and needed to get back to that. Remember, this was 2005-2006.
So, now it's 2010 and without the kitchen being done, he's decided that it's time to finish the living room wall and maybe even finish the living room. How exciting. Can you please finish the kitchen first? Nope. Need to move on.
Jim came over before Christmas, moved everything in the living room and taped and floated the wall. Very nice work. Roy kept Sy home the Monday after Christmas. Jim came over again, they put up a wall of plastic, sanded the floating and fixed some areas of concern. The next day Jim came back over (no Sy this day) and they sprayed the texture. It came out looking very nice.
Roy is working on the wood details that will frame the windows and making crown molding and base boards to go in the room. Right now, we have the nephews with us so the project is on hold until Sunday. The plan is to paint all of the walls so they are the same color as the rest of the house - light gold. Then he will install the framing around the windows and get that finished up.
He would like to buy the $700 worth of ceiling tiles needed to finish the ceiling too. And with that, we need another ceiling fan for the old dining room turned office/walkthrough to garage space. What's that another $160? I figure this project will wind up being just over $1,000 before it's all said and done.
Oh, and I forgot the craziest part. When Roy moved everything away from the windows, I decided they really needed to be cleaned so when Roy took Sy to run errands I went to work. The middle window was all streaky. I figured it was outside, so I went out and cleaned the outside. Then went back in to look at it. Still streaky. The streaks, it turns out, are inside the double panes. The window is defective. I am really glad that they have a lifetime warranty on them. The new window will be at Home Depot this week.
The second crazy thing is Roy found a leak. We had a strong rain with lots of wind and the rain came in the corner of that large window that needs replacing. To fix it, he wants to start getting the siding on the house. I have no idea how much this will cost or how long it will take because this is new territory.  The plywood that went up took weeks.  Don't worry, I took photos of the wall, just the wall.  If we get serious about the ceiling tiles, I will snap off a few before photos for historical reference.  I promise to share as soon as the paint is on and the windows are framed in.