All Flat

 
The workers spent a large portion of Wednesday and Thursday flattening out the floor.  We hope that it will be much better now, however, won't really be able to tell until all of the subfloor is down. 

With the exception of the front 6' of the upstairs, all of our old roof framing is gone.  We have a nice pitched and tarped roof currently.  Still hotter than he** up there. 

 

I hit up the Rejuvention semi-annual sale this morning and was able to get all the fixtures for the kiddos bathroom.  All of the hardware was 50% off the lowest marked price so I scored 3 fixtures for about the price of 1 sconce!  I was pretty pleased and only wished they had the fixtures I have been drooling over lusting over eyeing for the master bath.   Despite being about 20th in line, all of the polished nickel scones were pretty picked over by the time I navigated the crowd and got to them. I did not even look at the brass stuff as we plan to use antique light fixtures in the hall and bedrooms. 

Light, Glorious Light

Our awesome electrician (who typically does commercial work but takes on side jobs from time to time-contact me for his info if you are looking for an electrician-his hourly price is great and he's very trustworthy) was over on Sunday and finished up almost all the lighting.  We are pretty excited!

Enter new gorgeous lights.  Well, not totally new.  The over sink and main fixtures were purchased by me in seconds at Rejuvenation about 6 years ago (you think I jumped the gun just a bit?) for super cheap.  We have used the main fixture for the past 5 years so I just cleaned and shined that baby up like new. 

The light by the back door/basement stairs was purchased just a few weeks ago from Rejuvenation when they were having a 20% off sale on their classic light fixtures. 

All the shades are from School House Electric, a splurge but I think it was well worth the money.

Light Smights

On to more decisions.  While it is so fun making all these decisions for our new kitchen, it is also super overwhelming & exhausting. 

I just got an e-mail that Rejuvenation's Portland Store is having a sale over Labor day in their clearance section.  This of course got me thinking about all the things on my to-purchase list for Rejuvenation.  Of course most of those items are not in the clearance section, but hey, a new light might be. 

Shown above is our current light.  I really like it, except for the red.  This picture makes it look like it also has a yellow stripe, but really, just red with a thin black outline.  Rejuvenation doesn't even carry the shade we have anymore.  Anyways, I would like to keep the fixture (Rejuvenation's Rose City)  if at all possible, but I am not totally committed to it.  I also already have a matching fixture (Rejuvenation's Upshur) for over the sink that I could use.  But not committed.  Just trying to save some change.

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Here are some ideas that I have-maybe I could even score one at the Rejuvenation sale!

School House Electric

Do you have any other great lighting ideas for our kitchen? Maybe something fun and Industrial?-I know that Barn Light Electric has a great selection.  Maybe something that adds a little *surprise* to our otherwise very classically bungalow kitchen? -we have a center light and one over the sink/window.   Anything outside the itty bitty box of ideas I have so far.  IDEAS, PLEASE!

If I had a million dollars....

I would buy you a light, a very very nice light...
Have you seen the new arts & crafts lights that Rejuvenation just released?

The Blackstone

The Broadleaf

the Wildwood

Here's a little peak.  I am in complete lust and would just love to see the Broadleaf hanging somewhere in my home.  Maybe a splurge when we eventually add a master bedroom. I could picture 2 Wildwood sconces and a Broadleaf ceiling fixture or two... I just really wish I had an extra few hundo/thousand (for all three) lying around... 

Week 2 of Challenge

It's already been a week and I managed to work on at least a project a day-enter pat on back. If you recall back to 8 days ago, I challenged myself to work on a house project for at least a few minutes a day to get myself back in the mood of working on the house and get some of those little projects crossed off the list. 

this wall above the toilet is screaming "adorn me"

Day 8: nothing, remember, I told myself I only needed to get things done 5/7 days.  ok, well I should say nothing to show.  I have been wanting to get some art for above the toilet in the bathroom and have wanted to pull some blue (gasp!-I generally use no blue in my house and have pretty much avoided it at all costs to this day) into the bano.  I am thinking something peacock-y and have been doin' some lookin' on etsy and ebay.  Have some ideas in mind but would like to hit up some local shops first-I will keep you updated.  Hope to get blue towels to match.  Mix it up a bit.  Add in something unexpected.  Our home is a bit to predictable at the moment. 

Day 9: Tuesday.  My friend Chris, lighting extraordinaire came by and helped me hang the awesome light that I bought off of him last month when we were selling things together at a little antique/salvage rummage sale in front of Old Portland Hardware here in Portland. 

Well, I love the light, but it has a few issues and most will be able to be fixed pretty easily.  

laundry chute

another view of laundry chute

hangs so low that Steve, being 6'2", almost hits his head on it each time he walks by

1. move hideous make-shift "bathroom" cabinet.  This requires building a built-in to go in front of the laundry chute in the bathroom-hopefully will get this done in the next 6 months, that will be almost 2 years since we started the bathroom remodel.  Timely, right? (enter sarcasm, which I try to use often)
2. raise up light several inches and adjust wiring accordingly.  Chris is able to help with this but needs to bring over the right tool to do so
3. get 40 watt bulbs, easy, just a trip up the street to the local home do-it store.  All I had at home was 60 watt and I need sunglasses to use the light right now...got some!  way better
4. possibly get new shades for the light.  The ones on there were free from Chris and are pretty but not quite my style.  Thinking of getting ones to match the ones in the bathroom.  Harmony is bliss.  
5. this is the tricky part, it appears that this fixture still has knob and tube wiring and is therefore whonky as is the bathroom light.  Needs a new box and wiring.  This project will have to wait until we demo our upstairs. 

But none-the-less, I heart this light and really think it is pretty.  I hope to re-use the previous light upstairs at some point...maybe in the stairwell.  However, I don't think the stairwell is equipped to handle any sort of light fixture right now, do you? 

light fixture that previously hung in the hallway and below the shade, ignore dust, I will blame it on constant construction instead of lack of dusting :)

looking up our stairs to the attic.  check out the hot ceiling work and lovely 80s wallpaper

more hotness

from Rejuvenation

 Also, I love how the new light in our hallway goes so well with the one in our bathroom (yes, feel free to scroll up to check out the way the new light looks again:).  It will look even better once it has square shades to go along with the other square shades. 

Chris, lighting extraordinaire!

I think that I have mentioned my awesome friend Chris before but not sure.  Anyways, I lived with Chris when I first moved to Oregon 5 years ago.  I had just finished grad-school and needed a place to live just before Steve and I got married (he moved up before me and was living in his bro's already full house (it was a gorgeous bungalow on 12th and Taylor in SE that Sally Struthers lived in way back when--just picture all original stain, and Englenook and need for lots of TLC by non-renters)).
       Steve's brother had this friend Chris who wanted a short-term roomie and, well, it just worked.  So I arrived and Chris happened to be at Steve and his bro's house and that's how we met.  Been friends ever since.  Lived with him until our (Steve & mine) house closed one month before Steve and I got married.
       And Chris loves old houses and all things old just as much more than I.  In fact, he worked at Rejuvenation for years and quit just when I met him in order to start his own business.  While Chris primarily sells on ebay (look him up-Hard to Find Houseparts), he also does house consults and will look for hard to find things if you need it.  He has done pretty much all of our house lighting and then some for us and he is A-Mazing!  He also has his own little blog about old photos.
I swear I have a point in this blog post.
Well, last Saturday was the Division Street Street Fair.  In conjunction, Bret from Old Portland Hardware on 40th and Division (you should totally check this place out if you haven't because it is truly awesome & also houses the store Portland Vintage Plumbing) put on a salvage & vintage parking lot sale.  Well, Chris, my sis-in-law and friend and me shared a booth.  I was able to sell a few vintage wares that I just have not used (yea-more things purged).  Chris sold tons of super cool things (I should have taken pictures) but I fell in love with a really cool craftsman light that he had.  I texted Steve a picture despite pretty much already buying it.
  The light fixture came re-wired with cloth wire by Chris himself and ready to hang bare (bulbed that is).  However, he agreed to find me some cool fitters and shades and I hope to put it up in our hallway, replacing our currently pretty cool but not as cool as I'd like halophane (sp?) shade light.  Here's the terrible pix of it that I texted Steve on Saturday but hopefully there will be some better pix of it all hung up soon :)

I realize that this light is all square and the rest of the lights in our home are circular but I love it none-the-less and had to have it & P.S. don't u just love hate that creepy velvet painting of the cat-ish thing on the bottom left?-ha!  makes me laugh and want to run in fear all at the same time)

I hope to post soon about some of the cool lights he has put together for us.