From this 2 this:

The first stage of the house's face lift!

Original: 

This front room has been through many transformations. When we first bought the house, the carpet was gross, full of pet urine and ugly dark paint. Before we moved in, we laid new carpet and painted in order to use this room as our living room. 

Then we built our great room, changed the carpet to laminate and this room became our dining room. Usually the table was placed lengthwise but once this current renovation and the old "office/playroom" was torn down, we had to double the dining room as a play area.

Old dining room

For those of you familiar with home renovations, you know that when you have to create multi-purpose space for the duration of the project, life can get cramped. But oh well. 

This week they removed the old window and door (picture above). We had to put the dining room in the middle of the kitchen, move the portable Pier 1 island along a wall in this front room, create a place for the computer desk, as well as toys. But oh....I love the new window and door. I'm not sure when they'll put up the drywall, mud and tape, but in the meanwhile, my goal is to keep things clean and safe for the little boys, as well as give a semblance of space among cramped quarters.

New wall for future front entry room

Here are some inspiration pictures that I'm using to decide the paint color for the inside of the door, as well as decor. It will be a rather unorthodox foyer/front entry room because the whole area is 16 x 13. Creating a wall to divide the space for a small office was not in the budget. So I'm going to divide the space with a DIY shoji screen-of-sorts to make a place area/school room...future office, and still have sufficient space for a proper foyer. You can see  other inspirational pictures on my Pinterest boards: https://www.pinterest.com/tinacwebb/