Electric is done! Come see my fixtures!

The electric is done! Not only do I have outlets but there’s a new level of prettiness all over the house. And also a lot of questions since everything I do is convoluted. So here’s what we’ve got.

Remember that light from my parents’ upstairs hall? Well my mom never liked it much, so now it’s mine. It is more appropriate for my high ceilings anyway. She asked if it’s nice enough for my vestibule. I think it’s fine, though I’ll upgrade if I find something awesome that’s also cheap in the future.

It has kitschy frosted designs on the glass that belie its 1950’s roots.

The dining room light is still just a pig tail. I bought a very modern chrome chandelier from the 60’s with a friend ages ago. I wasn’t sure about it then, and I’m even less so now. But since I own it and I don’t own anything else, I think I should invest in the missing parts, hang it, and get it in shape to resell for as much as I can. Or maybe I’ll decide it works after all. I do believe in mixing styles.

Then in the kitchen, one of the ceiling fan blade brackets broke… the brackets aren’t quite the same size as the replacements at the Home Depot, so I’ve got to figure out if it’s feasible to get the replacements. And also if I even want to.

In the upstairs hall I’m thrilled to have lights. Thrilled! But I think they’re a little bulky for the space. They were a Christmas gift early on, and they’re from IKEA. And again, although they’re one of the most attractive $30 light fixtures I’ve seen, I’m second guessing the idea to mix in these very modern things. Still they’re a huge upgrade from the old one, which made scary buzzing noises and flickered when I touched it.

Then in the back bedroom, you remember the big plywood canopy I made to cover the open top of the fixture?

It worked as intended! You can’t tell it’s there. I do wonder if these bulbs are too small. But soon there will be attractive and cost effective LED replacements and all bulbs like these will go byebye.

And in the front bedroom, I have a small chandelier. It’s funny because the scales of the two bedrooms are backwards, but I used what I could get where they fit the ceiling heights.

At some point I want to find replacement bobesches for around the bulb sockets. This started off as a bare bulb fixture then had globe fitters clamped on later. I’m really tempted to buy this set on eBay. What do you think? I’d obviously need to strip, polish, and re-lacquer the brass to make it match my fixtures shiny restored finish.

In the bathroom I have bare bulb fixtures that I took out of the basement. I was sad to see that they don’t match and that only one is porcelain. If I’m gonna have crappy temporary fixtures, I’d like for them not to be plastic. But I’d also like for them to be free.

And speaking of the basement, I can actually see down there now! It might have been better when I couldn’t. I have a vintage Lionel train set with Plasticville houses that I’d like to set up down here. Remember, there are 4 children next door. The Irishman and his 3 kids. Can you see there being room for all that in here this Christmas?

And when it comes to the current season, it’s kind of great that I was longing for a breeze out back all summer and got the fan as soon as the heat broke. This one is definitely boring but definitely useful and definitely staying. I even bought it new.

So there’s the effect. Next time I owe you something about the experience.

Paint Wrap Up and Color Reveal

Did I have a good Labor Day weekend? No, it was exhausting and I didn’t really do anything fun. But the house is all painted and I’ve handed it over to the electrician! He didn’t want to waste any time, and how could I say no?

Friday night was the final prep: putting paint samples on the wall. I picked colors off cards for the bathroom and back bedroom, but I’m glad to have spent the $25 on 5 colors this time because I would not have been happy with my first picks. In the living room I channeled my inner Goldilocks. I leven ooked the part some 25 years ago, but I digress…

But now what I actually meant is that my first color choice was overbearing and orangey. The second, my mom’s pick, was insipid. The third was just right.

And I feel like I’m turning into my mom. It matches the stained glass perfectly! I’m not usually a stickler for matching, but it worked out this time.

The kitchen is just off white, the same color as the ceilings everywhere else. It’s a little warm, and that subtle change made a big difference in how the room feels. Like I said, I can put a color on the kitchen cabinets later if this is too boring. Also, all the living room paint is the same color. It just looks different here.

The vestibule is gonna be navy, including the ceiling. But in case the walls get banged up when the rest of the woodwork goes in, I just did this much so far. This color came from a friend; we each need about a half gallon. And I was grateful to not have to pick it out!

Then I did the matching thing. I pulled a neutral out of the marble to get a safe background color for the room. I was surprised to find that the colors that worked best with the marble were greyer than I expected. And again, it took 2 tries. It looks serene and all, but I’ll want to liven up the room… at some point.

Now let’s back up to a night after work next week. The plan was to put all the pre-hung doors in the bathroom now to free up the room for painting and leave them there until after the floors were finished. But there’s no way the supertall closet doors were gonna fit.

So now they’re installed instead and WAHOO I’M SO EXCITED

And let’s celebrate the demise of all those pig tails… except the one where my dining room chandelier goes. But even more exciting than that? Multiple outlets upstairs mean the end of this mess. And new adventures of actually being able to close the bathroom door.

Oh also, my mom loves all my colors. I wanted to call myself independent (ha) but this approval was important.

Rounding Up and Chickening Out

I’ve gone in some circles with paint colors from my bedroom and now I’m thinking of dialing it back. Way back. I’ve gone from strong and dark to light, plain and neutral. Something that won’t compete with all that marble and mahogany. I took a piece of the marble into the paint store with me and was surprised to see that it goes best with greyer tones than I was expecting, so it looks like my walls might end up greige. But you can talk me out of this, too, if you want. I’m still painting the walls and ceiling in the vestibule navy. It will feel like entering the house through a dark, fancy closet.

Then what else have I been up to? Well, the toilet is hooked up again! And weirder yet, it’s clean. But the stored materials are making their way in because it was getting too boring in here. My left knee fits between the two door jambs so it’s all good.

The living and kitchen are both cleared out enough to walk through! Tidying up isn’t my strong suit, so my dad deserves most of the credit for this one.

And ceiling repairs in the kitchen. The light is back where it should be, centered between the beams. And the patches from the waterfall incident are just about smoothed out enough to paint over now.

And I made this thing. Can anyone guess what it is? In other news, I used the band saw I thought we should get rid of.

Answer: the old flush mount light I impulse bought like a year ago is actually a chandelier with lots of pieces missing. So it looks like a flush mount, but if you put it on the ceiling there’d be nothing to cover the electrical box. Now it should be totally usable.

The cuts don’t show. I’m planning on painting the board to match the ceiling so it looks like it’s not there. But I could put an interesting color on it instead. I could, but I don’t think I want to.

Then there are the two ceiling fans I was planning on using in the kitchen and the back yard. I bought one for the back and definitely, definitely look forward to some man-made breezes back there. There aren’t many ceiling fans that are rated to use outside and small enough for my little overhang, but luckily, Lowe’s carries one.

I might put this hand-me-down in the kitchen, too. The switch housing cracked and I’ll probably want to add a light. And then… the motor housing is oak. I don’t really understand why that is a thing. But the blades are real wood and I think a ceiling fan in the kitchen would be handy.

And if I use it, I’ll need to either buy a light kit and I may wind up staring at it angrily. So I may not even be willing to invest 25 bucks into making it usable for now. Maybe I was wrong when I said I had phased out all my boob lights. Also, the chandelier I bought, which is also a questionable choice, is not ready to hang. It’s more likely that I’ll do worse than boob lights and leave the pig tails.