Diamond in the Rough

Well, as you may have recently read on my blog...we are in the process of purchasing a new home. This home is...shall we say...A diamond in the rough. It will be spectacular when done, but right now...not so much. We have officially cleared out the remaining junk that the previous owners oh so kindly left behind for us. What remains now is the smell. Once you get past the smell...you see the size..Overall is over 3500 square feet. We are in the process now of waiting. We have already cleared out and cleaned the first layer of filth off. As well as pulled all the soiled carpet. Next up...after the sale is officially final...we will pull up subfloors and drywall at least 2 feet up all the way around the house. The basement will be completely gutted. All in all this project should be 2 to 3 months long.

For me..right now I am not able to move much past the smell...into inspiration. This living room really has me stumped. It is a 600 square foot room. The 3 window on the East side of overlook the deck and pool area.

There are sliding glass doors on each side of the fireplace. I am not sure why this was done exactly. The doors go out to our covered patio, which also has a fireplace and houses the hot tub. My vision for the fireplace is something like this. Stone going all the way up. I think this would go with the rustic look of the wood beams on the ceiling.

Right now for furniture I know we will have a dark brown leather sofa & loveseat to place in front of the fireplace. I would also like to put a small table somewhere in the room for a board game table. Other than that...I have no more vision for the room. I can not think of a paint color for the walls. Right now everything in my current home has black frames on all our pictures, our TV armoire is black...we have white doors and white trim. So...if I stick with the blacks and whites...do I then paint the wood beams black? Ahhh...really I am open for any and all suggestions for this room. I think the shear size of the room just has me stumped.

On to the next area. The Kitchen and eat in dinig area.

This picture is looking at the fireplace in the eat in dining area. All those boxes house the stone and hearth for the fireplace..which is similar to the picture I linked before. This area is large enough that I have visions of putting 2 comfy chairs with a little round coffee table in between them by the fireplace, and then still plenty of room for the actual dining table behind.

This room connects straight to the kitchen. I am gaining a large beautiful newly redone kitchen, but I am losing my beautiful newly remodeled kitchen in my current home with white cabinetry. I can not decide on wall color in these two rooms either. The two windows in the room both do not get direct sunlight because they are both covered by covered patios.

And last but not least, the entry way. When you walk in our front door, this is what you see.  A long entry way. It also is dark, so I need a light color and new light fixtures. It is a long good sized hallway. At the very end you can see where you step down 2 steps into the large family room that was pictured earlier.

So, here are the design dilemmas I lay awake at night thinking about. PLEASE feel free to weigh in with any and all advice! Links to pictures would be great too!

Thank you friends!