Sunday, March 29, 2009

Lights - what a pleasant surprise!

We've been slowly finishing up the study, bit by bit. Last week we got enough of the ceiling up that Ken could install the lights, which are a real treat.

When we bought this house it had literally only 4 or 5 lights installed in the whole house - and many rooms had no lights and only very sketchy-looking surface-mounted outlets. The study had nothin' - no light, a bad outlet. Luckily (I suppose), there was a hole in the floor where an old radiator was (it was moved to its current position), so we ran a big orange extension cord from the cellar, through the hole, into the study and ran a power strip off that. Don't tell dad.

In order to turn on the desk lamp, you had to come all the way in, tripping over stuff, and switch it on. Otherwise, the cord wouldn't reach the computer. Yeah, nice.

A couple of days ago, with much fanfare, we shoved that cord back down through the rabbit hole, never to be used again! The funny thing is, I keep forgetting we have light fixtures - and a wall switch, how crazy is that - and I keep walking into the dark room feeling around for a lamp. Duh! I'll get used to these newfangled contraptions someday.

We installed 3 lights and four - count 'em, FOUR - receptacles, all properly wired and not threating to burn anything down. One light is just a utility light in the closet. The closet, formerly known as "Cold, dark, plywood hole in the wall with crap thrown everywhere because you couldn't reach the back corner". Now functional.


See the giant coathanger, top left? It came from the drycleaner, from a wool blanket or something. We've been saving it in case we need to do some industrial-strength poking - it's super-strong wire. You just hang onto something that awesome.

The other 2 lights are decorative and functional (my favorite combo). One of them we picked up at the ReStore in Denver while visiting last summer. I love flying around the country with odd house parts in my suitcase! The guy at ReStore charged us a buck. $1! I'm so glad they're opening a ReStore up here soon. I mean, the thing is solid brass and has a gorgeous old Webber socket. I cleaned it, rewired it, and it's on the ceiling now. I don't love the shade, but it works for now. If I win the lottery, I'm buying this one immediately.


There's also a light in the corner, that was just too pretty and perfect to pass up. I wanted something angular - to go with the ceiling light - and found this beauty on Ebay for $10, dirty, missing a piece of glass, etc.


I rewired that one too. We found a stained glass hobby/supply shop nearby, where the woman charged me $3 for 2 pieces of carmel & ivory colored slag-type glass, which she even cut to fit. Nice. I think the $13 fixture is now maybe my favorite in the house.

5 comments:

Kathy from NJ said...

My sister and BIL live in Saco. Whenever they come to NJ there is always a trip to a very nice lamp store in Caldwell. Recently I was searching for a finial riser (my lamp store didn't have what I wanted) and found Fogg Lighting in Portland, ME. I told my sister about it, she has now been twice and LOVES it. I think you've mentioned trips to Portland occasionally, it may be worth a visit to Fogg Lighting the next time you're there.

Sandy said...

Awesome lights. I love the first one, shade and all!

Karen Anne said...

I really like the last light. I've never seen one like it before.

Tommy said...

All the lights are sweet. You've done such a great job. I really liked the description of the old dark, plywood and cluttered closet. That reminds me of home:)

Great!

Jennifer said...

Nice lights! Maybe I'll come to YOUR ReStore and take something back to DENVER with me. :)