Breathing free

I am finally back on-line after fighting with my new connection at my new house for weeks and I have missed my blog and my online decorating fix to no end! As part of the home owning experience our new house had a mild smoke smell from the previous owner who smoked only in the finished attached patio, initially we though this would be easily resolved but we soon realized the smell permiated through the ENTIRE house. We have learned that the only way to get rid of smoke is to paint every wall and replace ALL of the carpet, cleaning doesn't cut it. We also learned that smoke residue goes THROUGH primer even when the walls are well washed and it takes several coats of paint and washing to cover it all up. So home buyer beware and if you buy a home of a previous smoker budget to spend the money to make it smoke free!

On the upside the enforced painting and cleaning required us to painstakingly paint the bonus room and we ended up settling on a lovely antique white to seal in the scent. After looking at various design pictures we were inspired us to go for a wonderful burgundy colored carpet. (Which we got at a GREAT deal since no one apparently wants this color.) Once we added our cherry bookshelves we are well on our way to our Steampunk Explorer's club themed living room in our now smoke-free environment. Now onto the decorating!