Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments about the fireplace - maybe it's not so bad after all! Ha! Rugknots - you're probably right that I've gotten so used to it that I'm just thinking it looks dated. But we'll see what it looks like after the repainting. You've all got me thinking now about moving forward with getting rid of the entertainment center before I was really planning to! Perhaps I should really move THAT to Phase 1 and move the new furniture to Phase 2! Hmmm! tylerandabby - I never THOUGHT about taking off the side pieces! I know they are screwed into the main center piece (because I remember the RACKET the screwdriver made when the installer screwed them together!) But the top piece is connected to the bottom piece so I'm not sure I can take it apart. Something to investigate though. Thanks for the idea!

Our last house needed everything. The roof was four layers thick with the last one put on over thirty years before we bought the house. It still had knob and tube wiring. It had zero functioning appliances—even the heat did not work. One of the two bathrooms had a leaking shower. And on and on. But it was the perfect location (great schools in walking distance, walk to library, walk to movies, walk to shops and restaurants, easy access to commute routes, adorable neighborhood). It was the right size and had the best curb appeal ever. And there was very very very little on the market. We spent three years and a lot of effort and money fixing everything. And then about a year after finishing our last project, we moved. Sigh. Our housing market was hot so we sold for enough to cover the money we put in plus more, but that’s not quite the same as getting our money back because I am sure we could have done nothing and still sold for more than we paid. So if you hate remodelling ( I actually like the planning part quite a bit, but not the living in the under construction house with kids part at all), I would think carefully about taking on a huge project.

We have now looked at this property several times, and we have decided not to purchase it. We are looking at other options. We just decided that it was not to our liking. It was going to cost too much to update relative to the owner's price demands and there are better options in this range. One of us is currently very taken with a home built in the 50s that was gutted and added onto in the '90s and '00s. The finishes on it are much nicer.

More background about the remodeling project. The living room is a sunken living room and we are raising it to level with the dining room etc. We need to raise it about 8 inches. This fireplace is in the sunken living room. Since the fireplace has a layer of brick that is raised right now and we are going to make the fireplace flush with the new hardwood flooring, we will be raising the fireplace up for about 5.5 inches (8inches - thickness of the one layer brick + thickness of hardwood flooring that will be installed). It is about the thickness of 2 layers of normal red brick and a little more than one layer of the brick that is inside of the fireplace. After raising the fireplace, the opening of the fireplace dimension will be about 24 inch tall * 36 inches wide. Will it look OK? If it is still a “normal” size opening for the fireplace, I tend to want to keep the wood burning fireplace as I can paint it white and it is still functional.