Our first year at The Kiefer Cottage

We've now lived here in Roeland Park for a year. Memorial Day weekend of 2011, we moved all our crap, I mean, lovely belongings into this 1800 sqft home that was built in 1940.  We paid $99,000 for this house, making an offer five minutes after walking in.  Some of you might gasp, "I would NEVER spend that much on a house like that!  99k and you have ceiling tiles and a bathroom worthy of a horror flick!"  Others might be thinking, "WOW.  What a great deal. I just bought a studio apartment in Big City, USA for $500,000."  For Roeland Park, whose median household value is anywhere from $107k to 170k depending on the source, we got a fine deal, especially for all the space.  There are many little two bedroom homes in the area, making our house almost a mansion in comparison.  And how fortunate we were not to have to settle on a crumbling foreclosure because that was about it for inventory in our price range in expensive Johnson County, Kansas.  Anyway, I love this house, wavy floors and all.  

Since we've been here a year, I thought I'd continue our walk down memory lane (which we began yesterday with the living room).  Today, we'll take a fond look back on the family room, which is part of an addition we think was built during the late 50s/early 60s.  We're not sure, though, and could be entirely wrong.  I do think, though, that since these ceiling tiles and paneled walls are not recent decorating trends, it's safe to say this room is older than I am.

When we moved in, this room was very dark.  Fake wood walls, shag carpeting, and odd layout. It's a very long room.

In the fall of 2011, we painted the walls "Winter Wheat" by Olympic.  Brightened this room up considerably.

And then a few weeks ago, we did a drastic makeover on furniture placement.  While I'm sad not to have the desk featured as prominently (too many times a desk has a back that is not worthy of viewing, but this desk is glorious), I love that this new layout keeps the toy mess in check since the gathering area is smaller. The table on the right needs to go, but it'll do for now.  And you'll notice the stereo console is in here now instead of the living room.  The desks are out of picture: one on the right, one on the left.  They aren't photo-worthy at this time.

You'll see that the white TV stand is gone.  I moved it to the dining room.  The new console is delicious.

Hello, lover.

 Mid-century modern piece.  I bought it for a song at the vintage furniture markets held the first weekend of every month in Kansas City.  It's not quite right for the age of the house overall, but it fits with the era of the room.

Each corner of the top has an inlaid X.  You can see a little damage to the finish.  I'm not touching any of it for now, though.

I loved that there was space to hide the large equipment. We had to drill holes in the back for the cords, but this is not a super fine antique--I needed it to be useful anyway.

So as you can see, we've made a few cosmetic changes.  This room still requires art being moved, new flooring, new walls, upgraded electrical, and a new ceiling.  Anybody wanna help?