The dining room is a place to gather for more formal dinners. Growing up, I used to dream of the day where I would prepare elaborate dinners and have dinner parties. My best friend and I used to talk about this all the time. Then, reality hits. You have kids and realize that throwing dinner parties can be quite expensive. So, we currently limit ours.

For the most part of the renovation, which really means installing the floors because we are still renovating and updating, we resided downstairs, in the dining room. Notice Sarah, my daughter, dancing. Let me just say, it was so difficult. There were days I felt like throwing in the towel. Mr. Renaissance, my husband, would remind me of the end result and how great things will be once we are done. It is far easier said than done. Now, I can look back and reminisce, but at that time, the end result seemed a lot farther than I wanted to admit. Our daily lives consisted of dusty, concrete floors (no matter how many times I vacuumed), two mattresses on the floor–in the dining room, a restroom and dust EVERYWHERE. All over the place. We lived out of the suit case, ate sandwiches a lot, and practically lived in one room. . .the dining room.

The final pictures are the current dining room. We are still working on a few things, notice the picture frames at the end, I will be hanging up these with term inserts on the sad, lonesome wall above the bar cart. I will post an updated picture once it’s completed. It may not be wonderful wall art to most, but to me, I love it! Mr. Renaissance will also be putting in wainscoting (like we did in the bedroom), we will paint the dinner table and I will be reupholstering the dining chairs.

Before: The previous owners had it as a gym.

Before: The dining room was our room for a few weeks.

Before: Sarah dancing, notice our cement floors.

After: the floors were installed.

After: Our first Thanksgiving dinner.

After: Mr. Renaissance and I decided to paint.

Painting time

See the difference? We weren’t thrilled with the color we purchased the house with.

After: we painted with Benjamin Moore’s White color.

After: Second Thanksgiving dinner.

After: Our second Thanksgiving dinner.

After: The most recent picture.

The frames and literary phrases I will be hanging up in the dining room.