We need to replace our outdated brass light in the hallway with something more contemporary:

I’m digging this modern light fixture from Lowes:

The directional spotlights could be very useful to direct light to the parts of the hallway that are currently underlit.  Plus, I am planning on hanging some photos on the wall just below this fixture, so one of the lights could be used to illuminate the artwork.  This light is not available in store until mid-December, so it’s going on the wish list for now.  Please Santa, I have been a very good girl this year *cheesy smile*.

Whilst I was out shopping for supplies yesterday, Rick busied himself painting the dining room (along with writing this embarrassing and surprising post). We’ve said sayonara to the cerise, goodbye to the garnet, ciao to the cherry.  This is how the dining room looked on the day we moved in:

During the painting process, it was interesting to watch the room evolve from dark and dingy to light and bright:

The walls, door and window trim have all been primed, making our dining room currently look like this:

It’s amazing how the white walls make the space feel so big. The plan is to keep the bottom half of the walls white and add a chair rail and boxes. The top half we are planning on painting a bold grey color, to contrast with the white trim and dark dining room furniture. Hopefully, the end result will look something like this inspiration pic:

I’m a little nervous about the grey color for the walls.  It’s more bold than I usually tend to go for in colors.  I’m hoping it will bring a sophisticated and modern vibe to the room.

I (Rick) wanted to write a post about my partner for life. I don’t usually add any words to this blog, just some of the labor that completes the work that Amy is always posting. I have heard a lot of comments lately about how hard I work trying to get these rennovations done on the weekends and the evenings during the week. I just wanted to take this opportunity to let everyone know that I don’t do all of the labor that goes into these projects. It is true that I work hard (when Amy can get me motivated to work on them), but she is the real trooper when it comes to getting things done.  I add in a lot of the technical know-how to complete things, but Amy puts a lot of her elbow grease and her designing skills into every project. After all, amongst other things, she is the one that tiled the whole bathroom downstairs. Once I show her how to use a power tool, she does not hesitate to use it and she is great at all of the things she attempts.

Amy teaches 4 Psychology courses during the week and she is very busy every evening getting her lectures, exams and grading completed, as well as, trying to answer all the questions that her students may have. She also works as a research assistant for her Ph.D. Supervisor in which she is sometimes busy with doing loads of statistics. Even with all of this, she still finds time to motivate me in assisting her complete the DIY stuff around the house. I keep trying to get her into the pictures of the work she does around the house, but she refuses to let me put her on the blog. So, she’s going to be mad when she sees I have posted this message, plus this picture of us.

After hearing all the comments all the time about how good of a job I have done working on something, I have realized that maybe I am just the luckiest man on earth. I feel this way because I have a lovely wife who is extremely intelligent, dedicated (to me and to her work), passionate (about me and her work), loving, caring and one of the hardest working people that anyone could ever meet. Who is not afraid of rolling up her sleeves and getting elbow deep into any kind of work that is necessary.

And I am the lucky git that she chose to call her partner for life.

Being from the UK, the whole Thanksgiving Holiday is quite new to me. Whilst I am definitely a fan of the two days off work, turkey and cranberry dinner and plenty of delicious desserts, I haven’t got into decorating for this particular festivity.  Yet.  Christmas on the other hand, I’m a BIG fan of.  I usually start thinking of buying chrissy pressies in September.  And I love it when stores play festive music and have Christmas ornaments on display in October.  Yes, I’m crazy. So by the time November comes around, I’m-a-ready to start decorating. This Christmas we’re going to be in the UK. Although it will be the first Christmas in our new house, I’m not sure whether it is worth going over board on the decorations.  So, I wanted to find a quick and easy (and cheap!) way to impart the festive spirit without going the whole hog.

Sparklies always bring a smile to my face. I figured something sparkly at the front door would be a good place to start. So, here’s how I made two sparkly Christmas trees to flank the front doors .. for a grand total of … wait for it…. $5.98.  Yep, for under 6 bucks, we now have these beauties welcoming our visitors and friends to our home.

How did I do it? I’ll break it down:

2 x Tomato Cage: $5.96

String lights: $0 (already had)

Electrical ties $0 (already had)

Imparting Festive Spirit: Priceless.

You can get the tomato cages from your local DIY store.  They come in a variety of sizes, ranging from little 2 feet ones up to 6 feet ones.  I scored a couple of the 4.5 foot high ones for $2.98 each. You’ll also need some string lights and some electrical ties.  We already had these on hand, thus costing us zilch. zero. nada.

Before starting to wind your light onto the frame, check to make sure your lights are working.  We forgot to do this on the second christmas tree, got to the end of the project, plugged the lights in …. and they didn’t work.  We swapped out every single bulb in case one had blown.  No luck.  So we ended up having to undo all our hard work and start again with lights that did work.  Lesson learned.  Always test the lights first.

Starting at the bottom, tie the lights onto the frame using the electrical ties.  These also come in a variety of sizes – I found the 4″ ones to be most effective. You can snip the excess plastic off the tie once you have tightened them around the frame.  To make sure the lights are evenly spaced, I used small pieces of blue painters tape to guide me. Rick thought this was terribly funny seeing as I am always ribbing him for being the OCD one.

Keep winding the lights around the frame, securing them with the ties, until you get to the apex of the tree.  How many lights are used will depend on how tightly the frame is wrapped.  We had a few lights left over when we reached the top, so we started winding them back down the frame until they run out. Et voila, in no time at all, you have a sparkly-in-the-making christmas tree. Repeat process for the second tree.

Rick set up the wiring outside so these babies will automatically come on when it gets dark.  He also covered the electrical plugs in these helpful protector boxes.

So, there you have it.  A quick and easy way to spruce up your hoose. The sparkly lights definitely make me feel more festive.

What decorations are you putting up this year to get you in the festive mood? Are you going all out or keeping things minimal?

Our first fire of the season in our new house.

Very romantic for humans.  Not so much for doggies with no fire sense.  Arriba, our chihuahua puppy, thought it was great fun to jump up on the hearth and stick her nose into the firey log.  Anyone fancy some barbecued chewie? Luckily, we averted disaster.  Mental note – must get fireplace screen to save puppy from impending doom.

Our house has thirty seven windows.  Yep, 37 old, dilapidated windows in dire need of replacing.  Let’s count ‘em.

That’s 17 on the front of the house, not counting the front door transom windows and the three-pane french doors onto our small porch area.

We have a further 16 windows on the back of the house. Windows #18 and #19 are partially obscured by the tree in this picture – both are in our master bathroom (one is a large picture window above the tub, the other is a smaller window that sits above the toilet). Windows #23-25 on the side of the house are above the garage.  The remaining 4 windows are on the opposite end of the house, making a grand total of 37.  Pheewwwww.

The condition of some  windows is better than others.  We had to replace the window in the dining room pretty quickly once we moved in because the frame was completely rotten. Our goal is to replace all of these windows.  Eventually. Like, when we win the lottery. Or I get me a sugar daddy.  Whichever comes sooner.

So, in the meantime, we needed to come up with a temporary solution to minimize heat loss during the upcoming Winter months.  I found an amazing deal at our local Walmart on a roll-on kit for insulating windows.  This kit usually retails at 10 bucks, but it was on sale for $1.75!  So I grabbed a few (or fifteen) of these kits to insulate our multitude of windows.

There are a few quick-and-easy steps to follow for installing the insulation.  First, you have to wipe down the window frames with the provided alcohol pads (to ensure the insulation will adhere to the frames).

Next, you apply the double-sided sticky tape down the sides of the window, and along the window sill, making sure the corners overlap.

The plastic insulation comes with a sticky top; you just unroll it and press it to the window frame, leaving about 2 inches on either side.

You then stick the plastic cover to the tape on the frame, trying to pull it taught as possible to minimize wrinkles.  The last step is to apply heat to shrink the insulation  – a hair dryer about 2-3 inches away does the trick nicely. You can cut off any extra plastic from around the sides for a totally polished look.

So, in less than 10 minutes (and for less than a buck!), we have insulated windows and a home protected from the ravages of Winter weather.  Well, we have at least one window insulated at the moment. It’s a good job that we’re starting now – it will probably take us until January to get the remaining 36 windows done!

What steps are you guys taking to prepare your home for Winter?

When we installed our contemporary chandelier in the dining room …

we had to decide what to do with the original chandelier…

I didn’t particularly hate the shape of this light. What did offend me was the tacky gold/brass skeleton overlaid in plastic. And, although you can’t quite see it in the picture, there were millions of these miniature plastic flowers tied on with gold wire to keep the plastic covers on the chandelier arms. Nice.

We were originally planning on giving the chandelier away. But after my first successful attempt at spray painting some parts for our dining room light extension, I thought it might be worthwhile trying to fix this Dynasty throwback.

So I took that sucker apart and spray painted everything chrome. And I mean everything. Even the little connection wires between each of the squillions of crystals. After a few days letting the paint cure, we began putting the light back together (minus the plastic coverings and flowers). A few cute spherical bulbs gave the light a bit more of a contemporary feel, and voila! we had a madeover light (picture updated!).

It’s new location is going to be in our bedroom-turned-loft library. How luxe will it be to relax in a comfortable chair with a cuppa ho-cho, surrounded by a plethora of books, reading under the sophisticated, sparkly chandelier?

What do think? Do you think the chrome makes or breaks this chandelier?