You can put the TV over the fireplace, not the best situation but the way the room lays out it is the only logical place to put it. If you could you should add one additional layer on your mantel that could extend it out another 4" to deflect the radiant coming from the fireplace. I would also mount it on a slimline mounting bracket and have the bottom of the TV no further than 4" above the mantle. Ideally you want the TV to be in as straight a line as possible with your eyes. You don't want to look up too high at the TV, it's like being at a sports bar. Also if you can snake up the power and the HDMI from the cable there is a box they make that has both in one so it makes for a very clean installation.

As chookchook said in her recommendation about painting, put a drop cloth on the floor. Get a very safe ladder. remove the lightbulbs, and cover the outlets. Turn off the electricity to the chandelier. Then spray it with a mild cleaner (I use one I found at Target that's basically water with vinegar, until it's dripping wet. Start at the bottom and work your way up, so you don't have dirty spray dripping on the bottom of the chandelier.Work your way up and down until the dripping spray is clean. The chandelier may be gorgeous and expensive, but it seems totally out of place in the architecture of the room--more at home in a chalet than a sunny room with a window wall. I would probably try to find a way to get it removed, and sell it to someone who appreciated it better than I.

Try this. Hang the television to the right of the wood stove on the wall opposite the french doors. Use the wall with the high windows for a looong sofa and add two chairs across / angled slightly - low back so you can look over one to television. use console / sofa table on entry /bed door wall just past where entry door opens so you have a lay down surface. Forget glass, it isn't for this era and won't make it feel bigger. Paint ALL french doors inside and out and small windows and entry door same color and trim same color too. Try a charcoal rather than a black - something in the blue-green-gray shades like new providence navy. do all the walls in kitchen and living in a warm white - this tone has the wood as an undertone - http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/woodash then, for the cabinets . . do a bungalow thing and go deeper on the cabinets to a classic drabware tone - with the wood walls and floors / try bm bracken biscuit http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/brackenbiscuit these will all go together like gangbusters, keep it light and bright but interesting and work with a new blue green gray back door in a tone like bm beach glass http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/beachglass templeton gray as a counterpoint on some craigslist piece of furniture . . add warm undertone tan and oatmeal nubby tweed upholstery to start . . the teal navy gray will work with the black iron stove and accents without going black. start keeping the left door to the kitchen closed and get a door stop to hold the other one open permanently . . this will work because you need a little more wall to make the tv work well - in the kitchen, pull your table away from the wall just a tad - consider a padded bench on the wall to provide a kind of sitting space in there and put the chairs across - if you shift your television to the wall (high enough the heat is not an issue , you can still have big speakers work well - and remote the media equipment - run the wire and patch the holes. Hang it mid-height - eye level when you sit plus 15 degrees . . check out the amazing sconces you can put on the entry wall - shades of light petersik pendant with home-made trim wood brace to pump it out from the wall since the power is high? over the console? round wood table in middle - even a hd butcherblock round on a painted drum base in trim tone? With those tones - teal gray, biscuit, creamy off-white, muted blue-greens - paint your white chairs and a hand me down bench wythe blue and find a graphic sunbrella print with a little blue green, chocolate and orange for cushions and pad skirts with velcro at the table . . make a galvinized pipe leg / plank 1 x 12 / clear finish console for behind the door . . now you are cooking with gas . .

Without looking it up , the new Credit Regulations came in on 1 Dec , and there is a fine of up to $200,000 for every instance of 'irresponsible lending' . The problem seems to be that it isn't defined . So a couple who have been together for 5 years , saved $100k , both on $100k plus , have $50k of cars that they are prepared to sell and drive $5k ones , plus 1 lot of parents has $50k to lend them . A house that is $1million they can afford . But what if the female gets pregnant ? What if he loses his job and takes 2 months to get a $50k job ? What if the parent dies and the lawyer wants the $50k back ( or $37.5k of it to distribute to other siblings ) ? Those clothes trucks that go around the lower income suburbs sell a pair of 'knock-off' designer jeans to a solo mum for her 14 year old daughter . They charge $5 a week for 20 weeks , mum and daughter are happy because it fits their budget . You and I can probably find them on-line for $40 , they might be able to too , but to get $40 might mean missing a couple of meals or not prepaying the power , so they don't . I am a director of more than 40 companies . Probably half of them I own 99% of shares , others I own 33% or 40% or 50% . Pre-Covid , combined turnover was well over $250k a day , my property holdings are well into 8 figures . In June/July when I bought the Lincoln Street property , the mortgage was almost a formality -- I've dealt with the same bank for 35 or more years , have good cashflow and own a reasonable whack of my properties . Almost all have mortgages , and the more valuable ones also have floating charges , but I doubt I am classed as a risky borrower . Tenders close on this place in just under a month , but as it is technically not livable ( a couple of walls have been taken out and additions started -- they have closed it in with building paper and ply and wrap ) , I cannot get a mortgage , even though my intention is make it better , spend up to $1.5mil , and live there for at least 15 years ( I will have turned 70 by then haha ) . So if I do get it , rather than a approx 3.5% mortgage , I will have to get it via Bridging Finance ( at 11% ) , then after a year or 18 months , when everything is complete and Lake Crescent ( my current place ) is hopefully sold , and hopefully the rules have been clarified , I then go the through process of getting registered valuations and applying for a mortgage etc . Assuming Lake Cres sells for around what everything thinks , even after spending $1.5M on alterations , the mortgage should be under $2M and valuation likely to be around $7.5M ( land and stables etc will make up about half that ) , but right now its harder to get that than it was to get funding for Lincoln Street , which depending on exactly how it all pans out , will be $15M plus when complete . Interesting couple of months . This is a picture taken from a spot towards the rear of the property -- a bit clearer than the other ones .