our very own game of thrones... er, light fixture

Enter Game of Thones theme music and picture me (Rob) in a "Winter is Coming" type of hat. Now that we have the setting, we can begin!

A light fixture wasn't something that we were necessarily scouring the earth for but when Lindsey's mom sent her a picture of this chandelier, we were sold immediately!

Lindsey's mom is always on the lookout for house stuff and it is really helpful because she definitely sees things that we wouldn't ever think to look at or look for. This chandelier was actually marketed as a fixture for a kitchen island. Our idea for a light fixture was something a bit more rectangular than square or round and because our dining room is long and we have a long table we thought something like this would fit that space evenly.

This fixture by Savoy Lighting was originally around $500 and is now for sale on Savoy's website for $240, that's a good deal in itself, right? Well, sure it would have been but because we ordered from Joss and Main, we got the very same light fixture for only dollars over $100! What a deal! Lindsey is the bargain hunter between us and sales like this make her giddy. 

In the stock picture above the shades look brown but in real life they look much darker. The metal is brushed bronze and there are some gold highlights. Overall, it matches the dining room perfectly and gives it a "Game of Thrones" feeling as we were joking last night after installing!

The installation process was surprisingly easy and only took about an hour from start to finish. Since, neither one of us had hardwired a light fixture in before, we felt accomplished. 

I started by shutting off the power to the dining room and detaching the old fixture from the ceiling.

     

***SIDE NOTE: Because "Winter is Coming" now rings so true in Michigan and seems as though it has come to stay, I donned a winter hat for this assignment, not because our home is frigid but because I wanted to. It just seemed right. (Lindsey kept reminding me that "that hat is going to be in pictures!")

Taking the light fixture down wasn't hard at all. After unscrewing a few screws the light was down - leaving (as you can see) a lovely ring from the previous owner painting the ceiling and not taking the fixture down. Lindsey was thrilled underwhelmed to add another painting project to her list... right now, it's not a high priority for either of us but it's been added to the list.

After the original fixture was down we had to measure and see how low we wanted the new fixture to hang. They gave us so much extra chain as you can see below, it was longer than Lindsey is tall! We decided to go with four links from the ceiling which is about 36 inches from the table top, giving us a nicely lit table and a good view throughout the room.

     

As always our girls were close by our sides and very often underfoot during this project. Harlee found her place under the ladder which I think makes her unlucky for seven years, sorry about that girl, and Oswin has always got her nose or paws into something! 

I used two sets of pliers to bend the links to first detach and then reattach to the proper length. Lindsey held the fixture while I adjusted the links and cut the wires. We didn't want to cut too much wire so we left some extra that we ended up just pushing into the ceiling and under the ceiling cap.

  

Once everything was cut and reattached, I was able to easily wire in the fixture. Because we weren't using the full length of chain, Lindsey had to hold up the weight of the light while I was attaching everything. Thankfully, it didn't take long and the light was up and attached with no glitches. 

 

 

The light looks great in the dining room and flows perfectly with the feeling in both the dining room and the adjoining living room. We are very happy with this purchase, not only because it was easy to install and the price was perfect, but because it works great with our existing decor! 

We also installed some metal antlers that Lindsey bought before we even moved in. She has been dying to find them the perfect home and put them up and well, she found it! I was super skeptical at first, thinking "antlers, really??", but honestly I do like them now that they are up! They really lend to the Game of Thrones feeling that I have towards the dining room; now all we need is an iron throne!

Thanks for following along with us,
Until next time,
Rob

adding a kitchen shelf

When we retiled the kitchen to make way for the hood, we were left with a big open space between the counter and the newly installed hood. It looked much nicer than it had before we took the giant microwave out, but it was still missing a little character (and storage space). Lindsey keeps the oils, salt and pepper, etc. in a wooden box behind the cooktop but it has to be moved every time we cook so it doesn't burn... not a great situation. So she came up with a solution: since the inside of the cupboards had to be painted white anyway, she wanted to make a little addition of a shelf between the cupboards. Now, when she first suggested this to me I was worried about a full shelf over the cooktop, thinking that the heat wouldn't be a good idea under the shelf... understandable right!? (Lindsey says: "He often acts as my common sense, ha!") Once she made it clear that it was only to be about 4 inches deep I was on board!

It's fun to make something out of nothing even if it's a really simple project like this one. We felt somewhat more proud of this project than others because it was an idea that started in our minds and came out exactly as we wanted!

I started by measuring and using my awesome miter saw to cut the pieces that the shelf would rest on. Because it isn't a very wide space and the wood we were using was good quality we didn't need to anchor the middle of the shelf. The shelf is 3 3/8 inches deep (quite a random number but it was half of an existing scrap of wood) and about 34 inches long. 

         

I used a drill bit to make pilot holes in the wood blocks as well as the adjoining cupboards in order to make screwing in the screw a bit easier. My first block install went fine until I put the screw in - the wood split, proof that even "easy" projects can be a bit frustrating. I was thankful that this happened on my first go-round because I could start fresh! 

       

After I got the blocks flush to the bottom of the cabinets and attached with no splitting, it was smooth sailing. We had planned to just attach the shelf with liquid nails (our favorite adhesive so far) and start painting. The plan would have worked brilliantly had we not run into a slight leveling problem. It wasn't any measuring or installing on our part, the cabinets are actually about 1/4 inch off from one another and when you are looking at a long "straight" shelf that isn't straight - it's quite noticeable.

All we had to do was add a scrap of wood with the liquid nails, wait for that to dry and then putty in the gaps! Not really a whole lot of extra work, just some unexpected problem solving! 

  

 

Far left: liquid nails to hold left side of shelf, Middle left: liquid nails with added piece of scrap,

Middle right: caulking the gaps, Far right: the side with the added scrap has been filled and caulked

Once everything dried and the shelf was set into place, it was time for the first layer of paint. As you can see, Lindsey does all the "make it pretty" work as she is a bit better at it than I! We used Glidden eggshell white paint which matched the kitchen cabinets. After one layer of paint, it was very clear that more than one layer of paint was required and the "unfinished" edge of the shelf needed to be sealed between the first and second coats of paint. 

Once the putty sealed fully we were able to finish off the painting and "set up shop" with our new shelf; so far so good! 

We have had a busy weekend - just wait and see what we have coming up next. 

Thanks, as always, for reading and following along with Lindsey and I as we refinish and set up our home! 

Until next time, Rob

I just had to add on this picture that Lindsey took while I was cleaning some duct tape off our front window. Our dogs are so fun!

It's hard to see, but that is Oswin's silhouette and Harlee is down in the darkened left corner. 

out with the old

For a while now, every time we would walk by the "Nest" display at any store Rob would express his intense interest in having this new thermostat for our home. I mean, yeah the thing looks a LOT better than the old yellowing one that we have on our crisp white wall in the hallway but who needs a thermostat that learns your patterns? Well we did I guess.

After receiving a generous gift to the Home Depot from one of my (Lindsey's) aunts as a housewarming gift, we went to the HD to buy some salt and a new snow shovel (without-a-huge-crack) to deal with the recently fallen snow. Well we weren't the only ones who thought to do the same thing that day; when we got there this past Sunday evening, there were no shovels left. So on our way out with only some puppy friendly ice melter, we passed by the Nest display once again. It didn't take long to weigh out that since we had the gift card (that would take care of practically half the cost), the updated look would give the hallway a quick pick-me-up, and not to mention the Nest would save us money on our energy bills - it was a good time to finally get the Nest. The nerd inside of Rob was pleased.

Sometimes when I look at something that is small but can do so many things, I get overwhelmed thinking that the task is going to be hard. Thankfully, I was totally wrong this time. Everything you need is in the well-designed package and it installs with no problem. You even check the compatibility with your system before you break the plastic seal on the package so there will be no problem returning the unit, very thoughtful Nest team, thanks!!

As you can see here the lovely unit that we had before was sparkly and shiny dull as can be. It may have been cool back in it's day but those days are long gone. The dingey color didn't help the poor thermostat one bit; honestly, it just didn't stand a chance of lasting too long in the house.

After shutting off the power to the hallway and the HVAC unit, Rob detached the wires. Ours were color coded which made life really easy. Once the old unit was down, it was just a jumble of curly wires sticking out of the wall. To attach the nest, you use two screws (provided) and the level that is built into the unit's base (we thought this was so clever!!). Once attached to the wall you insert the wires into the correct latches and away you go.

I wanted to give you a visual of how the wires pinched into the appropriate places. Obviously, the wires were bent to fit into the rectangular area, but we didn't take a picture of that step so here is just a representation. Forgive the quick edit!

Unfortunately for me and my paintbrush, the nest is much smaller than the thermostats of days gone by. When the old unit came down and the Nest went up we were left with paint drippings and holes and just a mish-mash of ugly wall (see the photo above). It would have been a short little project with some sanding and white paint etc. but just wasn't something that I had thought of prior to this install. Well, the Nest team must have known people like me wouldn't think ahead because as I was dipping my paintbrush to paint, Rob offered up a wall plate that comes with the Nest. PERFECT! A crisp white wall plate that actually made me like the Nest more than before.

All in all, I just have to say that I am most impressed with the quality of the unit itself as it has already started to learn our habits only five days after install and the thought that went into the packaging (seriously, a built in level, people!) It was also fun to finally have something that Rob had wanted since we were in the home buying process!

It's only been about a week but I would definitely recommend this product to anyone. It's so simple to set up and it feels a tad bit futuristic, making anyone feel cool! ha!

As always, we had our little helpers who just like to remind us that they are there and require mid-project "pet-me-please" breaks! ;)

Thanks for keeping up with us! Until next time, Lindsey and Rob (Oswin and Harlee too!!)