A Pearl in the Sea of Disaster:

While fetching our roommate from her job at Lowes, Adam and I took a meander through the paint department. On the Misfit Paint Shelf sat two gallons of glorious metallic joy. One is tinted a pearly crimson, the other a pearly gold. $5 each. That's ten bucks for like $80 worth of paint. Yay!

The key to the success of these pearly paints is to lay down a matching base coat. I'm not at all sure what I'm going to do with them, but it'll most likely be in the dining room.

Let's talk about my dining room, shall we? It's been one of the more 'finished' rooms during this whole ordeal. It has walls. But that's where the joy ends.

• We tore off a falling tile ceiling - Armstrong 'faux tin' tiles are going up in their place.
  
• The current curtains are pretty, but cheap. I would love to hang velvet drapes at the windows. It'd be a photography backdrop option, as well! Sneaky, huh?
  
• There was an ugly chandelier in there. It can stay, with the addition of more colored crystals, lampshades and handmade candle covers.
• Oh, the 'accent' wall. We removed some horrid fake plastic brick wainscoting. There's a faded, cheesy oilcloth mural of a harbor scene. Here's my friend Zac using it to his advantage:
  

**Duff was not harmed in the making of this photo.

To the left of where Zac is standing is the opening for the servant's stairway. We dream of building a bar into that area with shelves behind it. I'll probably do something swanky and photogenic on that 'accent' wall, there. No more boats!

Furniture-wise, I'm on the prowl for a sexy quartersawn oak table that starts out round and has many, many leafs. It can sit in the bay if I need space, and stretch out to accomodate a bajillion people. And yes - there are occasions when I'd like to be able to seat a bajillion people!