dining - 50% finished

As for the exterior - had that guy that did our retaining wall come in and take a look, said he'd give us an estimate on Monday. We're expecting him to come in extremely high - but I like his ideas and vision. And, I'm confident with his quality of work. We'll see what happens there.

We started on the dining room first, because it has the least amount of work needed. Mostly it needed alot of sanding, puttying, and painting. The walls had a tremendous number of holes, and gashes. I puttied the hell out of those walls, and with a dark sage color - it hid all of my patches really well. We are done with painting the walls - now the trimwork needs to be started. That will require lots of sanding, wood-filling (they installed the rod fixtures over the trim - ridiculous), and more sanding. Then of course, primering, and painted white.

I ordered a chandelier today for the dining room. I figure I'll be done with the rest of the stuff by the time it gets here. Here's the link - Restoration Hardware Round Shade Chandelier

And, of course, I didn't pay that much money for it. I spent 66% less by purchasing it from Ebay.
Another thing we're doing today is getting a really cool ceiling fan from Lowe's. They are having a sale on ceiling fans that ends today - If you buy a ceiling fan $99 or more, you will get a $20 rebate. The particular one we're getting is the Caribbean Brass Baja. I can't seem to get a good picture of it with the light kit, but it's one of those with big palm leaf blades. We are going for a Charleston style design in the master bedroom with light blue walls and tall curtains. But, we have not yet started on the bedrooms - perhaps after the dining, living, and hallways are done first.