@grapefruit1_ar Hah - you say you don't want to move from your primary home alive, I've told the mister we are dying in our current house because there's no way I will move to another in our lifetimes. I was the one who did the packing of boxes and all the other tedious but obligatory stuff in preparation for moving from our previous home - he only had to go see houses and take a ton of pictures of the ones visited, my parents helped out with the realtor-given property tours for because they already lived in Nebraska where we moved to. My mom ended up taking 'supplemental' photos because the mister was getting a little frustrated at the fact that I didn't think the ones he'd taken were sufficient nor showing all possible angles/views. :P My mom is a prolific photo taker, and she's super detailed (like I am) about things so really I should have just asked her to take all the photos while she and my dad were doing the home tours with the mister. I'd have gone out to Nebraska myself, but I had to stay and properly wrap up things with my legal practice, not to mention pack/be on site for showings/get the place ready including letting in various professionals to clean the chimney-replace sink hardware-add more lighting fixtures-etc...We decided to go ahead on moving in May 2017, put the house on the market in June 2017, had the place sold and escrow closed at the end of July 2017. My old car was sold and the title handed to the new owner a few days into August and the mister and I stayed at a nearby hotel with the dog until our flight out of LAX on August 5th. His work vehicle was already at our new house, but once we dropped our luggage off we went over to the dealership to pick up my new car - the transaction was done primarily online so it was super easy and convenient. The mister got a job offer out here right before I did, but his was on a shorter timeline before he'd have to give his now-boss an answer about whether or not he wanted to accept the position. Renting a place here at the same time as looking for a home to buy would eat up a lot of funds we really wanted to keep in the home purchase category of the budget. I also needed to put aside enough for taxes on the townhouse in SoCal that we sold (and other taxes related to both of the property transactions).

I would have it in my house in a minute. What bone inlay centerpiece? Where is it? This is fine craftsmanship! I have seen the fine wood and bone inlay work in the Middle East and in Spain, and let me tell you, you did a marvelous job. Not amateur-ish, or in poor taste at all. You should be really super-proud of yourself! Will you leave it as is, or enhance it more? When you are finished with it, you might want to polyurethane it to protect it. Have you ever seen the TV show Flea Market Flip? On that show people up-cycle things for quite a bit of money that don't hold a candle to what you just did right there. You might just have found yourself a way to make a pretty penny!

Much prefer arc lamps, chandeliers and layered lighting. Nothing worse than recessed lighting. Terrible on your skin and does nothing for your styling.

Partim, I have actually posted pictures of that corner. They were posted 4 days ago, if you look back at my history you will see 3 or 4 of them. One from the kitchen view, that corner to the family room. One of the corner from inside the room, from in front the built-in and a couple from the leather chair and ottoman on that side. There is a step down into the room from behind the recliner which you can not see well in photos. Have not decided on the final layout. I did square up the recliners, one on either side, removed one of the chairs in the room and moved the sofa down toward the tv as an experiment. Not sure I love the setup by the fireplace as it shows cords for the lamp :( the lamp on the there end table can be plugged into the floor, so that is not an issue there.