In Light of Things..

Last September, we decided to splurge a bit and hire someone to clean our house bi-weekly. She does a great job, and we are happy with her rates. Plus, there is considerably less cat hair being ingested in our household. Unfortunately, during her second or third visit, she accidentally broke the glass shade of our guest room ceiling fan. She offered to pay for it, and we declined that knowing that mistakes happen.

We went to Lowe's, got a basic replacement shade, and figured all would be okay. However, the screwy extension thing was too short. We called Hunter, but unfortunately the fan was discontinued, no other fan used the same shape shade, and our warranty had run out. They offered a discount on a replacement fan, and we declined, knowing that replacing a fan is a pain.

I was resolved to make that replacement shade work. I found a blog where someone had added a lamp shade to a ceiling fan, and the writer had a picture of the extender we needed, but wouldn't name the part because it "might bring up spam." She said the part was in the ceiling fan section at Lowe's.

That was incorrect. It was actually near lamp making supplies. And the part is called a "threaded P1pe n!p|le." You are welcome.

So, we were good to go. Unfortunately, the holes for the switches and finial weren't in the right places, so either the light would turn on or the fan would work- not both. Not good.

Then we tried a replacement glass shade that had a center hole. It rattled and moved off center too easily, even when tightened to the max.

A glass shade just wasn't going to work. I suggested that we use a drum lamp shade and Andrew surprisingly agreed (did he have much choice, other than to start looking at new ceiling fans?).

We ordered one at Target, but when it showed up at our door, it was a uno connection and not a spider, like we needed. That one went back.

Then I found one at Hobby Lobby (dislike shopping there, but had few options after scouring online, Lowes, Target, and Menard's). It was too big. When I returned it, I saw the perfect size shade - on a lamp. So it came with me, lamp and all. I just wanted this project to be done!

It's not perfect. The room is a little dark (I remember the original shade being pretty opaque too, but Andrew disagrees).

It kind of makes a spotlight in the room, prompting lots of "Where were you the night of.." jokes. But it beats bare light bulbs, and after 4 returns and 5 purchases, I'm done.

Besides, there is plenty of light with the side lamp in the room.

Moving on to more lighting dilemmas. For as long as I can remember in this house, I've had these mini torch lamps on the mantle. They were purchased at Gordman's and weren't my favorite; they were just affordable at the time. A year or so in, one stopped working, but luckily there was still another at the store. Easy replacement. Unfortunately, the lamps only work with incandescent bulbs. So when the second one broke when I brought it back out after Xmas, I felt it was a sign to get something I really wanted.

Our mantle has outlets actually built in. I don't know when these were put in (original?) but they are old (brass surrounds) and kind of cool. But also hard to conceal cords, since the outlets are smack dab in the middle of the wood.

I looked online at Amazon and found that there are sockets with a plug attached. Unfortunately, this search also brought up grow houses (whoops!). Anyway, Home Depot had them, too. So for about $4, I had a start.

A few weeks prior, when at Menard's, I'd spied these mission/Tiffany lamps that I liked, but couldn't really think of a use for. Hmmm!

Even so, I had a hard time making a decision. There were some art glass ones and mica that were a bit more muted.

Prices are not as listed...I kinda cleared a empty-ish row so I could see my options in a row. Andrew knows me and loves Mission style too, so after I had his vote, those babies came home. I grabbed some smaller CFL bulbs and knew it would work out.

I also switched up the fake plants on the mantle with some containers that felt more mission-y to me.

I'm happy with the lights and even happier to be done shopping for all those shades.

A little bit of tile

Back in November, right before Thanksgiving, we had our tub replaced. The original from our house (when it was flipped, pre-us) had a broken support in it, which resulted in a not-fixable crack and an expensive repair. The replacement  was supposed to be the same size, but went in a little smaller, leaving a crack about two inches wide between the new tub and our existing ceramic tile. We went off to Menard's and found a stone backsplash that had similar colors to the tile and I filled them in, for about $25.That was supposed to be the end of the repair. 

But it wasn't. The shower was also shorter, so when I washed my hair, soap kept on splashing up on the wall. Yuck. I'd suggested a tile accent long ago, so finally due to utility, Andrew jumped on board with this plan, too.

We measured and laid out the tile pieces.

Andrew cut a bunch of tiles in half for the corners and end, again borrowing our neighbor's tile cutter. Here's a blurry photo of that.

Before we put the tile set, etc, up - Andrew watched a YouTube video and learned that we should sand off the paint from the wall and seal it so that moisture won't get in to the wall. He rocked at this.

Then I set and grouted the tile. Here you can see the edge where I tiled a little accent to fill the gap between our ceramic tile and the tub.

And here it is all finished. Andrew also made new pieces of baseboard and attached them, and we caulked and sealed everything (sometimes twice). We also switched out the shower head for my "twister" shower head that was a wedding shower gift.

When we were house-hunting, I was never too picky about bathrooms unless they were really crazy in layout or function, so it blows my mind to think about how much work (and money) we've spent on this tiny room in our house. But when I think about what it looked like before - with a $30 medicine cabinet and drop ceiling tiles, the room feels like a virtual spa now. It does feel just a little bit luxurious getting ready in the morning now, especially when I look at those tall ceilings, custom tile, and pretty touches like the mirror over the pedestal sink.