Let There Be Light!

Another project that Eric tackled while I was away was installing not one, not two but three new light fixtures around the house! There have been quite a few light fixtures that I've been planning to replace for a while but as usual I never got around to it. I did quite a lot of online research to find the fixtures I wanted for the right price and ended up getting all three from Ikea. We are seriously so lucky to have an Ikea in the area. It's pretty much the best source for cheap, well designed household goods. When comparing prices on light fixtures nothing else even came close in terms of value and aesthetics.

The first replacement (and biggest improvement if I do say so myself) is in the kitchen, here is what the fixture used to look like,

And here is the new fixture! Oooh!! Track Lighting!!!

This has really worked out soooo much better for our kitchen. We had a real problem before with getting enough light to all our work areas and this has really solved it. We now position each individual light so that is goes right where we need it to be.

For example, this prep area used to be super dark. Not anymore!

The next light fixture Eric replaced was the one in the hallway, before it was just a bare bulb hanging out there,

The updated fixture isn't crazy exciting or glamorous but it certainly looks more finished and it's a huge improvement over what was there before. Also, it only cost about $5!

The new fixture, a little hard to see here but trust me it looks good. 

You can see it a little better here. 

Last but not least He replaced the light in Baby Echo's room. It was a ceiling fan with all the blades broken off of it, not very functional or pretty. We picked out something a little more whimsical for this room since it will be for the kiddo :-)

The light turned off so you can see the pretty paper shade

And the light turned on so you can see the nice diffuse light it provides. It makes the room much more cheery :-)

So those are all the big improvements that were made while I was away on vacation. Eric can be so handy when he gets in the zone. It's really exciting to make some progress on the house again. Maybe after this baby gets here I will have some time and energy to actually help out on a few house projects. That's probably just wishful thinking though since I'm pretty sure that after you have kids you will never get a good night's sleep again. Oh well, we have all the time in the world to finish our house projects :-)

Happy Anniversary To Us!

It is just over a year since we closed on the house, my how time flys! I still can't believe that all that paperwork and all the headaches that go along with buying a home are so far behind us. It's a great feeling to be settled in to our own home and we have been working diligently to pay off our mortgage ahead of schedule. It will be another amazing milestone to pay off the house but that is still a long way off.

Needless to say a lot of my short term plans for home improvements have been put on hold because of the impending new arrival to our family. We are putting away as much money as possible to save up for baby so that has caused us to slow some of our bigger projects. On top of that I am totally wiped out and nauseous all the time which basically means I have no energy (or desire) to do home improvement projects. Apparently growing a baby is hard work because it has left me totally exhausted. Oh well, it's supposed to get better in the second trimester :-)

Eric was able to find time to put in a new light over the sink in the kitchen so I wanted to post a picture of that to share with everyone.

We got this nice little pendant light at World Market, it is a big improvement over the ugly florescent fixture that used hang above the sink.

Other changes around the house all have to do with the coming of Spring. We've had such a warm Winter and I know things are blooming early everywhere. Our yard is no exception although we do seem to be a little behind Atlanta proper since we are little higher altitude and it tends to be slightly colder here in Marietta. Here are some of the things that are starting to sprout and bloom around the yard.

Daffodils coming up but not quite in bloom yet. I planted about 25 of them last Fall, it's exciting to watch them come up.

Azaleas starting to bloom but not up to their full glory yet.

Close up of Azalea blossoms, my white Azaleas aren't blooming yet for some reason. 

Shadow Play

As I was sitting in my dining room the other day playing board games with the family I was struck by how beautiful the light coming through our big front windows, particularly the shadows that were cast by the sunlight shining through the pine trees. It's like having a beautiful work of art on our walls in late afternoon :-)

I'm thinking it might make a good source of inspiration for a new painting but I haven't quite worked out how I want to use it yet.

Updated fixtures

Eric, my dad and Eric's dad worked super hard this weekend to update many of the lighting fixtures in the house and install a new fan. I am soooo happy with the results. Check out pictures below!

Eric and Dad installing the new light in the dining room. Goodbye outdated chandelier!

New light for the dining room, you may recognize it from a previous post.

Eric with the new lighting fixture he and my dad installed on the back deck. I love the industrial, old timey feel of this one.

View of both of the new lights together.

New ceiling fan installed in the master bedroom. This was apparently really hard, luckily Eric's dad was there to help.

New front porch light, this fixture was also mentioned in my previous post on lighting.

More to come soon, stay tuned!

Lighting Plans

No real news on the the actual purchasing of our house as of right now. The loan company is working on doing their thing and we are still working on getting our insurance squared away. So for the time being I will continue to post about my plans for the new house. In this post I'm focusing on my lighting plans and we finally get to see a bit of my modern/industrial tastes.

I think lighting plays a huge part in how a room looks and feels. I've always been a big fan of natural light which this house has plenty of. However we will need something to light up the rooms after the sun goes down so lighting fixtures deserve some thought and consideration. I've been trying to notice the lighting in spaces that I am attracted to and take note for when we start replacing lighting in the house. I've already drawn quite a few conclusions about the kind of lighting I want in each particular space.

First of all, lets talk about the dining room chandelier. This is a space you can see right when you walk in the door, it's kind of like a first impression so I wanted it to be perfect. The current chandelier is a retro, smokey glass number with a gold mounting. I really wavered on whether I loved this thing or hated it. Is it cool and retro or out of date and tacky? Finally I have completely made up my mind to chuck it. Even though there are things I kind of like about it it really doesn't fit our style or the vision we have for the house. 

After researching lighting online like crazy I've pretty much got my heart set on something like this for over the dining room table,

It's simple, clean, industrial and modern. You can find fixtures like this at some fancy home decor places for some pretty high prices but this particular model is available at Home Depot for all of $30. Yay for cheap stuff that fits in to exactly what I want!


The next lighting area I considered was the kitchen. This is the current fixture,

There's something about this one I kinda like, I think we will keep it around for a while and see how I feel later on.

An area that really needs attention is the hallway where there is currently a bare bulb hanging out of the ceiling.

With this one I have to be a little picky because I can't have anything that hangs too low. Eric is 6'5" and anything that protrudes from the ceiling too much will mean he will be hitting his head on it constantly. I'm thinking of going for something simple here. Maybe something like this,

                                                                          
                                                                             Or this,

The first of these is another cheapy from Home Depot and the second is from a more expensive company that I absolutely love called Barn Light Electric. Which one of these I get will probably depend on how poor I am feeling by the time we get around to replacing this light fixture, we'll see.

The last fixture that I plan to replace in the near future is the light on the back porch. You can see the bare bulb hanging out on the left in this picture,

For this setting I am seriously in love with this mason jar fixture by an etsy shop called Lamp Goods

I also found this super cheap alternative that has a similar feel at Home Depot so I may be getting this one instead,

Those are all my lighting plans for right now. There are a few other fixtures that will need to be replaced eventually as well including the ones in both bathrooms and the ceiling fans in all three of the bedrooms but the stuff I mentioned above is all that I have planned out at the moment.

If anyone is interested I've been making a list of lighting comapnies that I love, here are a few links to these.

Home Depot
Lamp Goods
Barn Light Electric
Sundance
Restoration Hardware