Change

During the past few weeks I discovered some new housing under construction near where I live. The 3,000 square foot homes are courtyard dwellings. These homes are the ultimate in private outdoor living space. I fell in love with them. They are all on one level with 12 foot ceilings and nearly every room opens up onto the courtyard that has a water feature. For those wanting to be neighborly, each home features large front porches with room enough to host 6-8 people comfortably. Unfortunately the more I drove past these homes, the more I was convinced there was a new home waiting for me even though the house we live in is less that 3 years old. After taking many walk-throughs at the new development, I realized that our house is lovely and that maybe I should do a little more to cozy it up.

It was almost a relief to make that decision. It was time to do more to help make our home feel like a welcoming cottage dwelling. Oddly just weeks after we moved into this house, my Dad died. All the excitement of buying a new home was suddenly over for me and from that time on I never really felt excited about being here. Don't get me wrong, we have a wonderful house and a great neighborhood but I had never made this house my home.

Taking the first step. For some time I had been dreaming of a coffered ceiling. For whatever reason I love them so I decided it was time to do more to give our house a cozy feeling. I found a website with plenty of sample ceilings and then I selected the one that seemed best suited for our dining room. We had someone come and install the ceiling this week. He came one day and sketched the ceiling. Once we approved it he came a second day and installed the trim work.

Here is the before and after (with just primer).