Call April Hay
http://www.GreatMissionViejoHomes.com/
http://www.socdreamhomes.com/
I'm fairly sure most Mission Viejo homes have a family room that could use some decluttering and refurbishing. I just painted mine and the pale yellow walls are already lifting my spirits. Because our family room is the most used room in the house, it is crammed with all the paraphernalia of a modern middle class family.
What used to be my mantle is now the perch for a 5-ft wide flatscreen. So the flat screen really determines the seating arrangement in this Mission Viejo home. We have a very wide leather chair and ottoman on one side of the room, a recliner made for two people on the other side, and a full size leather couch on the side wall. This basically means the room is wall-to-wall seating area. Opposite the ottoman is a full stack of electronic sound equipment doo-dads that operate the surround sound, dvd carousel, tuners, etc. Then there are the two 1.5-square ft. subwoofers and some sort of partially assembled computer and a monitor that also works as a second television. There are two other black contraptions as big as the subwoofers; I have no idea what they do, but I am told they are necessary.
Everyone in the family has a laptop, so we are always on them in the family room via wireless. Sometimes we even email each other while we are sitting together in this 21st Century Mission Viejo family room. There is no coffee table because there's no room for one. There are a couple of end tables crammed here and there. My printer is on a small bookshelf near a window which is where I keep too much stuff. Mission Viejo homes come in all sizes, but mine is medium--about 3000 sq.ft. Our family room is where we do most of our living so we might as well live in a smaller home.
So how do I make any changes in this room? Well, I just moved the couch out and replaced it with the love seat that was in the music room. (Yes, we have a dedicated music room, but I never go in there.) I removed one of the larger end tables and replaced it with a cute little bombe chest I picked up at a consignment store a few years ago and which had been in my upstairs hallway. It is a painted Drexel Heritage piece in yellow and gold--perfect for the new decor. I also had a pale yellow lamp from when my company was at a larger location, and it goes great on the bombe.
My kids are both artists and we have tons of framed oils that they have done. I am thinning out the collection in the family room to de-clutter the walls. Incidentally, the paintings seem to look much better hung on the pale yellow walls. It seems to bring out their colors more. We never use the fireplace, so I am storing some of that computer stuff in there. I got the owner of the gazillion laser disks to put them in the bin for the Goodwill. The player went too, thus lowering the black stack by one. April Hay, you are making progress! In the realm of all Orange County homes, this one is a real challenge. Buy we seem to be gaining.
The book shelves need to go. I am going to pull the encyclopedias from one shelf and move them up to the boys' room. Yes, I have two teens who share one gigantic room. And they don't fight! The rest of the books can go up there too, and the board games stacked on top can go into the upstairs linen closet. We also have a nightstand in the family room, a leftover from our first set of furniture 35 years ago. That's going to the Goodwill. Today I shopped at the Goodwill and found a wonderful, country french ladies desk. The drawers were all stuck, so I brought it home and put beeswax on the drawer slides and voila! the drawers work great on this truly elegant piece of furniture. With the bookcase and the end table gone, I think I can fit my desk along the wall near the big chair and ottoman. If not, then it will need to go in the living room, in front of the bay window--a rather nice place to be.
So, as Mission Viejo homes go, this one may not end up so bad. I haven't spent much money at all, but the difference should be great.
