Well, it's been a long two months of weekends and evenings plastering, priming, sawing, measuring, painting, and papering, but we're almost, ALMOST done. The first thing I learned from our first major home improvement project is that you never really are done because it's very hard to be satisfied (or is that just me?). Also, unless you do a whole-home makeover, there's always the next room to work on!

I say "almost done" because even though we were firm in our commitment with our wallpaper choice, even thought we rented the sample book, and lived with it for two days and nights, and even though we went against our designer friend's advice because we were so committed to that wallpaper, we've decided to pull it down and start again! I know, insanity. But I should have listened to Taisa, who warned me that this pattern would seem "original" (as in dated, as in it would look as if it's been on the wall for 80 years) and not updated, which is what we were trying to achieve in this dining room. As my husband said, "After all this work, we'd better bloody well love the room."

So we've decided to go with Taisa's choice of wallpaper. That's the second thing I learned: you have to commit. If you're straddling between two looks, say, traditional and modern, you have to choose one or the other, because eventually the room won't make sense. The square faux panelling is an updated take on a traditional look and the wallpaper didn't make sense with that.

The third thing I learned is the most important: while I'm always impressed when people tackle these projects themselves, I don't like living through it. Way too hard to work all day then come home evenings and weekends to do this.

Check out my little photo retrospective and a video of the finished room.

Thanks for all your support and suggestions! It was fun having you all in my backpocket while we went through this! Cheers!

Reni Walker (AKA Scotch Mommy on slice.ca) shares her moving mayhem on Wednesdays.