Come on in! (The dining room)

Welcome to our home! The first thing you will see as you walk in the front door is the dining room to the right.  (The staircase is to your left/straight ahead.)

Everything you see is in "recently unpacked/ it will possibly live in this room" mode.

Things we like about this room:

-The beefy crown and wall molding

-Natural light floods this room during all daylight hours

-The nickel light fixture on a dimmer

- Plenty of room for expanding our dining table to accommodate more people on holidays

- Freshly painted (albeit extremely neutral) walls

The door you see is the pantry.  That is a doorway to the kitchen.

This is the view into the hall (I guess it is considered a hall?) from the dining room.  The molding continues up to the living room (to the right in the photo) and stops at the base of the stairs.
The door is for a storage room under the stairs -- which is great-- but has no shelving and is basically an open carpeted area.  At least the vacuum won't have to live in Katie's closet anymore!
I'm going to make the hall area above and below the stairs its own to-do area.

These are random things that landed on the dining table.
You will sense this theme as I take you around the house: "these are random things that we unpacked and live here for now."  Hence the house blog!

So, what to do in here?

Dining room to-do:
 --Phase one--

-Find a rug for under the table!  Brand new light-colored carpet in the main dining area is not smart with a house full of children-- or me for that matter.  Not sure on color or pattern but we won't invest much in this rug since it's main job will be acting as a food-catcher.

- Install 2" white wood blinds? -- If we do this will be done after the windows that need replacing the home are replaced (the seller has already paid for this and it was worked into our contract)

- Possibly move two end chairs to the corners of dining room

-Style the table top with runner and something easy to move at meal times that require center table space

 --Phase Two--

- Decide on wall art

- Hang curtains - unsure on pattern or color

- Possibly cover the black leather seats with something lighter and more interesting yet still wipeable.

As a side note I'd like to mention that all of the "Phase One" projects I will mention in each room are tasks I hope to accomplish before the baby is born.  I might look back and laugh at that absurdity one day, but hey, a dream without a plan is just a wish, right? ;)

Thoughts, suggestions?

~Cayce