Lighting

I wanted to take a chance to talk about lighting... picking out light fixtures is a very personal thing. Then add two that, a pair of architect's... there's never the right light for the right price.

Our home was full of cheap, stock lighting as the person before us took all the fixtures with them and the developer had to install the bare minimums to close their permits. It's sad that the original fixtures are long gone, but it also gives us a blank slate. I'm not sure what is worse... wondering what was there at one point, or the search for the "perfect" fixtures!

Thankfully, we are blessed with a wonderful mom who has a knack for beautiful things. Here are our Living and Dining Room light fixures that she gifted us and we could never replace...  and nothing else lives up to. They are the same age as our house, handmade and one of a kind.

Dining Room

Living Room

Porch Bling

The hubs and I are forever grateful to my cousin, David, who is our current caretaker of the home. He collects our rediculous amount of junk mail, sorts out the bills and even mows the lawn! Now added to his list - collect packages. Not too many, but it has started... trolling through ebay and other such sites in search for houseparts from afar. The first item scored? A new porch shade! Last weekend we made it home to open the package, be surprised at the size (much bigger than thought!) and even had the chance to install it!

the before

the pieces (spray paint, fitter and socket) minus shade

installed and burning

Hello, Beautiful

A littel bling to the entryway, to help balance the scale of the porch. Now about that front door... it only highlights the wear and required restoration... doh!

Rain, rain.... and more rain

Despite the "unusually wet" spring we've had (again) this year... work progresses. We had a fun meet-up this morning with another fellow Portland house fixer-upper, Jason from Portland FourSquare. He stopped by to check out our Marvin Tilt-Pacs. Which gives me ideas of other posts, including the various types of Marvin windows we have installed in the house. Hmm... In the meantime, here's more on what we've been up to here!

new entry fixture

MANY thanks to Chris at HardtoFindHouseParts

AND...

bedroom trim has been primed and paint color has been selected!

sunday updates!

Introducing two new lights to the house...

we have some swag in the bathroom vesituble

and a little bling in the master bedroom

i'm not totally sold on the swag where it is... but it works for now and is better than before! which leaves me to the last item on lighting updates...

these are the three different types of lights we had throughout the house when we moved in. it's what the developer put in throughout the house when the church ran off with all the lights! i can't blame him, they're cheap. so we started out with roughly 24 domes, 4 exposed bulbs and about 12 of these brass sconces.

how many of each do we have left? 3 domes, 1 exposed bulb and 6 brass sconces. phew!

2011

i'm trying to be better about posting and the smaller things done around the house... while still moving forward with my stinking exams. this weekend i will be full throttle on studying for an exam on monday. my treat? watching the BCS championship game with OREGON playing Auburn that night! GO DUCKS! (and how i wish we were going to the game!)

while i'm studying... swanky plans to hang two more light fixtures to replace our generic $5 home depot specials... here's a peek at one of the fixtures!

What're your house plans this weekend?

small projects

(aka: finishing ones in the wings) These two projects involved upgrading from cheap, brassing fixtures to period lighting. The attic fixture was one that i purchased from the Rebuilding Center as rusted out and without shades. A couple coats of primer and paint, a tassle piece (thanks Chris!) and some shades later... viola! A fixture for under $50! The other light was from Nanny Faye. The age is unknown, and the shades are a little frilly, but it works in a quirky way. Unfortunately we are on the hunt for a matching shade or two new ones as one shattered while hanging in the air. Sad...



Attic Bedroom Light

Nanny Faye's light
(big bummer, one of the shades shattered!)