Let There Be Light

So about a week ago, we went to Home Depot for some landscaping items. We popped by the lighting section just for funsies and came home with three ceiling fans and a vanity light. I swear home improvement stores are the only place we impulse buy, but when you impulse buy there it's a bit more pricey than a candy bar or whatever other unnecessary item we might decide to spring for. I can't say I regret the decision at all. Upgrading the lighting in the house was definitely next on my list. (Well, painting was next, but getting Alton to paint is like pulling teeth, so that will be a drawn-out process I'm sure.) Anyway, here's the good part. 

Before and After: Living Room

Before and After: Craft Room

I don't have a before of the office because Alton took it down while I was at work, but it was essentially the same as the old one in the craft room. The after is the fan that used to reside in the master bedroom, so this next photo is both a before (master) and an after (office).

 And here's the new master bedroom fan. I'm thinking we will probably go with a sort of modern zen feel in there. Inspiration board to come.

There's also no before photo of the vanity light in the hall bathroom due to Alton's eagerness, but you can see it in some previous posts if you've forgotten about its golden-hued horribleness. Here is the new one:

The new vanity light needed to be placed higher than the old one, so there is currently a hole in the wall above the mirror filled with wires that needs to be patched:

I'm really hoping the hall bath will be the next thing to be painted. I'm sure we could knock the whole room out in a weekend if we would just get to it already.

In the Meantime...

No, we still have not finished the patio railing. We are about 90% there, but the gates need to be tweaked a bit and about half of the railing still only has primer and no paint on it. We have been waiting for a day that Alton is off and it is not raining, but that just hasn't happened recently. In the meantime, we have done a few more projects around the house. We've been sitting on a $30 Target gift card since Christmas and finally used it to buy a soap pump, tissue cover, towel ring, and toilet paper roll holder for the hall bathroom. (We've changed our vision for that bathroom since the previous post I wrote about it, but more on that later.)

 T.P. holder and towel ring before:

...and after:

 The whole shebang:



As you may be able to tell from our accessory selection, we've decided to step away from the coastal vibe we were leaning toward and go with a more modern one. We think it will tie in to the rest of the house better that way. We moved the old towel holder from this bathroom into the master because the previous owners had a towel ring on one side of the vanity in there and a fleur de lis hook on the other side, which we removed. So Alton's side has been towel ring-less for a while and the one we replaced in the hall bath was exactly the same as the one in the master on my side of the vanity.

No towel ring = sad, droopy countertop towel:

Towel ring = happy wall towel.

Ah, bathroom harmony.

There just so happens to be a Lowe's next to the Target we went to for our new bathroom accessories, so we stopped by there to look for something completely different (I'm sure you know how that goes) and walked out with a new pendant light to go above the kitchen sink.

The old fixture:

Here's the new one with the light off:

                                                                           light on:



I love the stripey pattern when the light is on.

So those are the small, indoor projects we've been working on while waiting to finish the railing. Also, my aunt sent me home with a set of wicker furniture when I went over there for the 4th, so here is a shot of our new, free (!) furniture with a sneak peek of the railing in the background:



You can see what I was talking about with all the rain lately in that rather gloomy photo...I'll be back soon with details of the recent eco-friendly project Alton did and hopefully a completed railing. In the meantime we will be choosing the perfect shade of grey for our living room, kitchen, and dining room. Stay tuned!

Kitchen photos

I finished unpacking the kitchen yesterday and just wanted to share some photos of it while it's nice and neat.

We were pleasantly surprised to discover that we had enough money to purchase a new refrigerator. The way that the cabinets are arranged, a counter depth fridge is required in order for the drawer and cabinet door next to it to be functional. Here's our shiny new fridge:

The first project we took on was replacing all the exterior doorknobs. The old ones were a brassy gold color and were showing their age a bit. We are going to be putting brushed nickel hardware throughout the house and these knobs are the first things in the house to introduce that color scheme. 

The second project we did was replacing the brassy-colored dining room light with this more modern nickel one:

The next few small projects we plan to tackle in the kitchen are replacing the light over the sink, replacing the fleur de lis knobs with brushed nickel, painting the walls, and removing the "stained glass" decals from the door.

Of course, we eventually have some big projects we would like to do in the kitchen, including getting new countertops, getting all stainless steel appliances, replacing the flourescent light with recessed fixtures, and probably painting the cabinets. These big projects are not on our radar for a while, but I'll most likely be posting a kitchen inspiration post pretty soon anyway.

Care to join me on my adventure?

My husband and I just moved into our first home on Saturday and my mind has been reeling with all the little things I want to do around the house, so I thought that writing a blog about those things would be a great way to get them out of my head and onto paper (or screen, rather.) I plan to update frequently and include lots of pictures of my inspiration as well as my actual projects. Speaking of actual projects, we've already tackled a few. Our house was outfitted with new exterior doorknobs on Sunday and we bought and installed a new dining room light fixture as well as some new cabinet hardware today. I will be posting photos of those projects as well as some photos of the exterior of the home soon, so stay tuned...