The beauty of not having posted my 30 till 30 list til just recently is that I can already say quite a few are done! (on a side note, I am not sure why blogger publishes posts on the day the draft was started, rather than on the day you hit publish. Technically I only published that list a few days ago, even though it looks like I did it back in march... not that it matters all that much...I guess I just like to be honest!) So hopefully the next few posts will be devoted to sharing with you all my successes!
Anyway, T and I finally changed our super ugly (and vindictive) brass chandelier in the dining room! (And by dining room I mean dining "area." our house is too small to have a whole room devoted to dining. Which actually suits us perfectly as we don't even sit at the table all that much... see #17) And we put it on a dimmer so that when we finally get around to eating dinner at the table, on date night, we can have a little ambiance!
To a lot of people, changing out a light fixture is no big deal (and the actual demo and installation was indeed no big deal.) But choosing the fixture, and then finally procuring said fixture, was a whole other story...
Poor chandelier. It really never stood a chance - we hated it from the beginning! It was ugly, bulky, to low, too bright, in the wrong spot, and as we quickly learned, it had a mean, mean streak. If we were anywhere in the vicinity of the ugly thing, it would reach out and knock us on the head! We tried lifting it up out of the way, but the thing was constructed in such a way that alterations of any sort were impossible. So we left it, and figured that until we were able to relocate the box, we would just leave it be - and besides, we thought, when we finally got a dining room table we would have that as a reminder to give the evil thing a wide berth.
So off to the garage sales we went, hoping to find a table we would fill with good friends and good food. We searched high and low, falling in love with several beauties - only to eventually realize that our space was too small for any normal sized dining table, and if we wanted to actually have access to our patio, we needed to think small and round. We eventually found the perfect petite table (with a leaf for those times we absolutely needed to squeeze in more hungry friends), and proceeded to paint it bright leaf green! Love!!
But the chandelier... oh the mean mean chandelier... it was determined to be an obstacle. Positioned right smack dab in the middle of the ceiling, anyone walking towards the patio would be knocked upside the head. We got in the habit of yelling "duck" at our guests, (which really only freaked them out, and never actually saved them from getting bumps and bruises) and we constantly joked about issuing hardhats with dinner invitations! We thought constantly about replacing it, but I kept picking out new ones that were way out of our price range, or designing ones that were way out of T's comfort zone; and somehow, the years snuck by.
Finally, a few moths ago a strange occurrence happened. T was out of town and I was alone at Ikea with a few bucks to spend, when I spied a fixture that met all of our requirements. 1)It already existed 2) it was completely affordable 3) it went with the style of the house and I didn't hate it 4)it was in stock 5) it was adjustable and 6) it WAS NOT BRASS! I am sure that I had looked at this same fixture a few times over the years never gave it a second glance, but somehow, this time it spoke to me. So home it came, only to have to go right back to the store (you didn't think it was going to be easy did you?) because it had a flaw. One of the five arms wouldn't screw tight and nobody wants a floppy chandelier arm over their head at a dinner party do they? So back to the store I went, and home came another one... which had the same problem!! what?!?!?!?!
Boy oh boy was I pissed off! I called the 800 number, and they couldn't do anything but offer an exchange - which I would have to do at the store. I called the store, and they couldn't do anything but offer an exchange - which I would have to... well, you get the picture. So back to the big box I went for the third time in as many days. Luckily the gal at returns was extremely kind, and had the lighting manager bring a few boxes for us to open and assemble on the spot. Third and fourth times were NOT the charm, but I think 5 may be my new lucky number!
I raced home and installed the new chandelier and dimmer,(with a quick trip to Salvation Army with the old!), and T came home to a well lit (if a bit frazzled) wife!
* I just spent the last hour or so going through my old photos trying to find a picture of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad brass chandelier, but I could not find a single one that I had taken! Guess it just goes to show how badly I wanted the thing gone... I couldn't even document it! Luckily T suggested I take a look at the old photos from when he and our Realtor toured the house without me!
Not sure why he used the space as an office, especially since he was a single guy in a two bedroom home. (and how did he not hit his head every time he stood up??)
And another view of how it looks now - well at Christmas - done up for our annual Ugly Sweater/ Dessert party. (Notice how I didn't include the table/chandelier when I took the photo?)
Anyway, T and I finally changed our super ugly (and vindictive) brass chandelier in the dining room! (And by dining room I mean dining "area." our house is too small to have a whole room devoted to dining. Which actually suits us perfectly as we don't even sit at the table all that much... see #17) And we put it on a dimmer so that when we finally get around to eating dinner at the table, on date night, we can have a little ambiance!
To a lot of people, changing out a light fixture is no big deal (and the actual demo and installation was indeed no big deal.) But choosing the fixture, and then finally procuring said fixture, was a whole other story...
Poor chandelier. It really never stood a chance - we hated it from the beginning! It was ugly, bulky, to low, too bright, in the wrong spot, and as we quickly learned, it had a mean, mean streak. If we were anywhere in the vicinity of the ugly thing, it would reach out and knock us on the head! We tried lifting it up out of the way, but the thing was constructed in such a way that alterations of any sort were impossible. So we left it, and figured that until we were able to relocate the box, we would just leave it be - and besides, we thought, when we finally got a dining room table we would have that as a reminder to give the evil thing a wide berth.
So off to the garage sales we went, hoping to find a table we would fill with good friends and good food. We searched high and low, falling in love with several beauties - only to eventually realize that our space was too small for any normal sized dining table, and if we wanted to actually have access to our patio, we needed to think small and round. We eventually found the perfect petite table (with a leaf for those times we absolutely needed to squeeze in more hungry friends), and proceeded to paint it bright leaf green! Love!!
But the chandelier... oh the mean mean chandelier... it was determined to be an obstacle. Positioned right smack dab in the middle of the ceiling, anyone walking towards the patio would be knocked upside the head. We got in the habit of yelling "duck" at our guests, (which really only freaked them out, and never actually saved them from getting bumps and bruises) and we constantly joked about issuing hardhats with dinner invitations! We thought constantly about replacing it, but I kept picking out new ones that were way out of our price range, or designing ones that were way out of T's comfort zone; and somehow, the years snuck by.
Finally, a few moths ago a strange occurrence happened. T was out of town and I was alone at Ikea with a few bucks to spend, when I spied a fixture that met all of our requirements. 1)It already existed 2) it was completely affordable 3) it went with the style of the house and I didn't hate it 4)it was in stock 5) it was adjustable and 6) it WAS NOT BRASS! I am sure that I had looked at this same fixture a few times over the years never gave it a second glance, but somehow, this time it spoke to me. So home it came, only to have to go right back to the store (you didn't think it was going to be easy did you?) because it had a flaw. One of the five arms wouldn't screw tight and nobody wants a floppy chandelier arm over their head at a dinner party do they? So back to the store I went, and home came another one... which had the same problem!! what?!?!?!?!
Boy oh boy was I pissed off! I called the 800 number, and they couldn't do anything but offer an exchange - which I would have to do at the store. I called the store, and they couldn't do anything but offer an exchange - which I would have to... well, you get the picture. So back to the big box I went for the third time in as many days. Luckily the gal at returns was extremely kind, and had the lighting manager bring a few boxes for us to open and assemble on the spot. Third and fourth times were NOT the charm, but I think 5 may be my new lucky number!
I raced home and installed the new chandelier and dimmer,(with a quick trip to Salvation Army with the old!), and T came home to a well lit (if a bit frazzled) wife!
* I just spent the last hour or so going through my old photos trying to find a picture of the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad brass chandelier, but I could not find a single one that I had taken! Guess it just goes to show how badly I wanted the thing gone... I couldn't even document it! Luckily T suggested I take a look at the old photos from when he and our Realtor toured the house without me!
Not sure why he used the space as an office, especially since he was a single guy in a two bedroom home. (and how did he not hit his head every time he stood up??)
And another view of how it looks now - well at Christmas - done up for our annual Ugly Sweater/ Dessert party. (Notice how I didn't include the table/chandelier when I took the photo?)
1 comment:
i am so enjoying your 30 before 30 posts, vic! ever since i discovered your blog i was always hoping you'd post more often. i'm finding inspiration in your fun design, diy life!
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