In the other half of the room, closer to the kitchen, there's a small squarish glass-topped dining room table, with four armless chairs upholstered in yellow fabric around it. All the metal on the dining room set has been spraypainted silver. On the wall behind it is the Hofmann "ode," and beside the table are two rows of picture shelves, with four large pictures framed in black resting on them. There's a small silver floor lamp near the table. Underneath it all is a piece of the outdoor carpeting in an orangey-brown colour. The window beside the sofa has been covered with matchstick blinds and drapes in a solid yellow fabric. It's all nice enough, but kind of boring. It is, without a doubt, much, much better than what John and Veronica had. I don't mind the TV being enclosed, since at least it's properly situated for viewing, but I wish there were only three doors, and I wish the whole thing had been designed for storage instead of having a wall behind the left-hand doors. That could have been excellent storage for videotapes, books, music equipment, eagles, etc. Even if Laurie couldn't afford to put shelves in there, she could have left it open so the HOs could do it later. I think it would be nice if there were some art on the frontmost sliding doors, too, so it looks less like you're staring at a closet when the doors are closed. I'm all for concealing TVs that are not in use, but whatever's concealing them should be pleasing to look at. The clashing colours (the yellow/orange, and the cream/white) are bugging me, too. As is the chair in the traffic path. That's bugging me more than anything. Also? Not neutral, as promised. Basically, it's a nice room, but Laurie phoned it in. There's absolutely nothing here she hasn't done before -- more than once -- other than maybe the ceiling painting trick. And this ceiling didn't need to be painted, especially a dark colour. It's already a slightly cramped-feeling room -- why bring the ceiling down visually? Why add this oddly oppressive feeling to the room? Meh. Enough with the terminal yello-city (tm Vel) already.

MPDP says there are big changes for such a small room. Laurie agrees that it was a tight space. MPDP says that the closet went up pretty easily. There's a shot of the closet with the doors open. The TV is centred inside, and the closet doors only open up just far enough that they go right to the edge of the TV. From anything but a dead-on angle, I think some of the screen would be cut off. In fact, I'm wondering how they managed to get the TV in there. I sort of thought the TV would be placed more to the right, with the doors on the right being pushed to the left. Also, where's their stereo and video equipment, which I think was piled on top of the TV before? Laurie says they've created a breakfast nook or an occasional table where they can have a couple over for dinner. MPDP says Gerald and Ann love that idea. I'm not sure if she means the dining nook itself, or being invited over for dinner. She tells Laurie she's twenty-six cents over budget. Laurie says it's because she had to buy the new light fixture. MPDP sneers that it was the same price. Laurie points out that she had to buy it twice, though. MPDP announces that she would have been under, otherwise. I think Laurie knows that. Isn't it MPDP's job to know? Maybe she thought Laurie wasn't counting the broken one in her budget, though she obviously did. MPDP likes the new one even better. Laurie says she told Gerald the same thing. They gloat about that for a while.