I love the pictures in my foyer. On the left is a gallery of my family and on the right is my husband's family. You can probably make out the baby pic of each of us. In the very center is an old picture of each our mothers...very, very special. Wish you could see a little more detail. You can click on the pic and get a little closer. There's me in the upper left corner riding my shetland pony, Buddy. And on the bottom right is me as a cowgirl toddler. There's a cute pic of my mother-in-law doing a cart wheel when she was young...seventy+ years ago. Also a picture of eight year old hubby giving his pouty face when he didn't want to eat his mom's goulash. HA! Oh, and I almost forgot. Hubby and I both still had those profile tracings you did back in elementary school, back in the 60's. So there's me and my hubby of thirty years looking at each other as we were as children. I love these. This isn't the best look at it all, but it's the only picture I have at the moment. And geez, my walls are a version of peach/pink, but I promise they are not THAT pink, yikes! Here is a link that might be useful:

OMG!!!!! Ideagirl, that is THE most over the top, well crafted kitsch I've ever seen!!! I love the bridge!! Absolutely to the eclectic decor, as in you'd need to dilute it. I think it would be great with some angular, chromed out MCMly rigid leather slings and outrageous arrows. John said, What I really want to do is, furnish my living room and foyer like a cocktail lounge / jazz club. Club chairs in twos and threes, around small round tables, with shaded lights and deep shadows, Dusty Springfield on the hi-fi, and well-trained mute children serving drinks. I'm tired of the couch and armchairs around the fireplace thing. I totally get that! I think I went to college with Marcolo's West Coast counterpart. Have to say, however, that the current living room furniture in the picture goes rather perfectly with the elephant columns and craftsman built-ins. I know many people who try to achieve that kind of look in similar houses and get the proportions all wrong and it doesn't work. Yours does. Children who make airplanes and death stars are more interesting than mute serving shrimps too. :) Eames chairs are pretty uncomfortable too. How about adding in exquisite pieces as you find them, on the basis of their artistic contribution to the house, and redo the rest when you have them all collected? By then, the noisy, messy children will be grown up and away, so you can have your perfect lounge in between visits from the grandchildren.

Sunrochy - I don't really know anything about Morganton, but on the map it doesn't look too far from Asheville. I just LOVE North Carolina! The only problem is we can't move there full time for several years because hubby wants to stay at his job here in Fla. to build up his pension. So I get to go up to my little Asheville pad for a month or two at a time and we come up together for long weekends, etc. It has been sooo much fun to be remodeling this little house - it's so easy to do when you have a small space to do over. I think I spent less on the whole remodel than some folks in the kitchen forums spend on their cabinets! When I get back up there and finish the remodel I will post some before and afters. This was just a bland little prefab house that was built in the 70's, no personality at all, and a lot of funky old carpets and chopped up rooms. We opened it all up, put hardwood floors and sparkly chandeliers, and painted bright colors (different for each room) and it's like a new house. I think I will name it "Birdsong Cottage" because each morning there are hundreds of birds singing around there. Can you tell I love it - hehehe

Chris, it is a bit confusing but exciting as well. Thanks for the complement on my painting skills. Yes, I do like the fp the color it is, but if I change my mind I can just paint over it. The hearth is concrete with pebbles, exposed agregate. I want to cover it with some sort of tiles. I have a huge box of bisque tiles in the garage that I was going to use on a shower in my last house; I can glaze them any color I want and have them fired. I'd like to box in the space under the hearth for storage. Midwestmom, I agree, and that's the philosophy I'm applying to all of my living room now -- make it serve me and don't worry about some stranger ten years down the road. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Val, the arch has no bearing on the fp code I'm almost positive; it's entirely superficial. I have called two carpenters to come out and give me bids. One will come Sat. and one on Tues. They know the codes and what can and can't be done. I also found two surrounds on Craigslist and I got one of the carpenter's email addies and emailed him what my fp looks like plus some ideas for what I like, plus the CL ads. So we'll see what he says. One of the CL ads would lend itself beautifully to what Reno did with her fp... the carpenter would just have to knock off the brick arch and install it, then build above it, then I would tile. The surround that's for sale is a gorgeous new oak one and it's $300. I emailed the fellow the picture of Reno's fp. Whether the arch stays or goes will depend on what the carpenters say can be done, and the cost, and of course code compliance. You make a good point about the height of the mantle, and that's on my mind too. I'm thinking those sharp corners of the hearth could use a bullnose corner tile over them. I'll also discuss my flooring options with these two guys and see what they recommend, and see if they can shore up the back of my fainting couch while they're at it. Thanks so much for the pictures and the great ideas, folks. It gives me a lot better grip on how to talk with these contractors and where I can go with this project. Our conversations here have lit a fire under me to get going on these projects and have a LR/DR of which I can be proud (LR first). I ordered the JCP drapes today. I had forgotten about the sliding glass door in the DR having to match the LR drapes, so with necessary hardware for the LR and a valance only for the DR the price climbed higher than I'd anticipated (isn't that the way?) but I think I'm getting very good bang for the buck. The thought of spending all this money is a bit scary. Now I need to double-check my measurements and order the fabric for the fainting couch, and look for gimp braid on eBay too. Never a dull moment when you're re-doing a room, is there? I have to laugh. The couch and chair coming back from the upholsterers made everything else look bad. Isn't that how it always happens? Get new drapes and the floor looks bad. Get a new floor and the couch looks bad, etc. Never fails!