Simple Project: Pot Lights

If you're looking for an easy house project/home update, we found it…replacing old pot lights.  If your house is over 20 years old, like ours, and has recessed lights (aka pot lights) of any variety in the ceiling, chances are the casing is cracked, dirty, and discolored.

This is a project we put off longer than we should have because we thought it was going to be more difficult than it seemed (as most house projects are), but it probably took a total of 10 minutes to replace four pot lights in two rooms, and it made a huge difference!  It's also not expensive ($7 to $12 per light.)

The eyeball lights in our living room were discolored and the "eyeballs" were coming loose, so fixing them was important.  The recessed lights in our kitchen had black interiors that stood out from the white ceiling and called unnecessary attention to how ugly and dirty they were.  Changing them to white not only better matched the ceiling, but also reflected a lot more light into the kitchen.  It's the small things that make a big difference.

Tommie was so excited about accomplishing an easy house project that it inspired him to stay up all night painting cabinets in the laundry room.  I wish we had more pot lights to fix to get him in the mood!

(New pot light versus old pot light…and one happy camper.)

The Wonderful Window Seat

When we talk about all the things we want/plan to do in the house, the window seat was something that got people really excited.  And bay windows are the perfect spot to build one customized to the home.

We have a bay window in the dining room and one in the eat-in kitchen. I was having trouble choosing the best spot for a window seat…until we had a party and everyone gathered around the kitchen, of course.  Decision made: we were definitely going to need more seating in the eat-in area.

This was a project for my dad.  We helped, but he did most of the sawing, building, and measuring.  I was ready with the paint brush when it was all done.  Here's the frame going up below the windows:

Here it is with the storage hole (over which a hinged cover would go) and the beadboard going up on the face of it.  You could just use plywood on the face (which we used on the top), but we wanted a little extra detail on the front. (When it was complete, we added moulding too.)

Here is the lid with storage underneath for Maya's dog food.  Maya, of course, had no problem being one of the first to test out the new seat which conveniently overlooks squirrels in the backyard and food on the kitchen table (her kind of spot).

We painted the seat and the inside of the window inlet all white; I figure this will allow for more colorful pillow options.  As you can see, we are beginning to work on the walls around it too, but there's a lot of prep work because it's painted wallpaper that is peeling up.

Aside from patching up the walls, the next (and most challenging task) is finding an affordable cushion that will work with a custom-sized bench.

It's great to now have a seat that will accommodate at least three extra people in the room…and it looks so pretty.

(Eat-in Day 1)

(Eat-in Now)

PVC Pipes in the Bay Window

Because I am in love with our large replacement windows in the dining room bay window, I didn't want to cover them up with blinds or heavy curtains.

These light linen (Alton Print) curtains from Bed Bath and Beyond ($35 per 84-inch panel) were exactly what I had in mind, and the contemporary branch-stenciled design is a perfect reflection of our style: natural, contemporary, and light.

When the curtains are closed, they provide just enough privacy while still letting light in, and the branches look like they could be shadows from the trees outside. The grommets are great for this kind of set-up as well; sliding easily and fitting the rod perfectly.

Because I wanted to be able to slide the curtains all the way over and to the small gaps in between the windows (so as not to cover up the prairie grids), the hanging method was tricky to figure out. Thanks to a lot of Googling, we decided to give simple PVC pipes a try. This required a couple ten-foot 3/4-inch PVC pipes (cut to size), two 45-degree angle PVC connectors, two PVC caps, and five curtain brackets.

For the brackets, we chose these circular ones from Allen+Roth at Lowes (about $7 each) into which the pipes just barely squeezed (this was probably the hardest part to figure out).  

The whole contraption was given a couple coats (2 cans) of spray paint with Rust-oleum Metallic in Flat Antique Nickel. There is one curtain panel on each side, and two for the big picture window in the middle.

By strategically placing the brackets, and being able to slide over the little connectors, the curtains can hang in just the right places without blocking the beauty of the windows at all. 

My husband made fun of me for saying that my vision for the dinging room was "elegant, whimsy"…I wasn't sure how to pull it off, but I think the new light fixture and the curtains help a lot.

(Dining room on day 1)

(Dining room today)

Brassy to Classy Dining Room Light

I haven't posted in a while, but that doesn't mean we haven't been working on the house…we're always working on the house.  There has been more doing and less writing going on while my dad was in town to help us, and my crazy new job got busy.

One recent update we made was to our dinging room chandelier. I thought about trying to update the brass light fixture that came with the house by spray painting it (a la ideas from Pinterest), but I couldn't decide on a color, and changing the color still wouldn't change the traditional/cheap style of it.

Original brass chandelier in dining room

I wanted something modern yet warm, and I had a very specific vision: a stylish silver fixture with distinct lines; small shades to give off a warm light; light linen shades to match the linen curtains we have, and all of this for $150 or less. 

Westinghouse Parker Mews five-light brushed nickel chandelier was exactly what I was looking for priced at $148 from Home Depot.

The light is great, but the journey to install it wasn't easy.  The first chandelier that arrived from Home Depot has some rust/corrosion around the bulb base.  I didn't think much about this until we installed the light, turned it on, and only four of the five arms worked.  The whole unit had to be replaced, but of course Home Depot was out of them so I had to order a second one from Amazon (luckily the same price).  The second chandelier worked like a charm but two of the lampshades came wrinkled and damaged.  Since we still had the first light, we could easily swap out the bad shades.  Obviously, the quality control on these lights is horrible, but once you get one that's in good shape, it looks fantastic.

It was a long journey to get here, but now that it's finally up and all the parts are working, it adds a much more elegant and warm look to the dining room.  The ability to flush-mount it and skip the chain was an added bonus.

Dining room before

Dining room now

In the next post, I'll cover the pretty new bay window curtains you see in the background.

Opening a New Door

Even though my parents came down for a holiday vacation, it's been more of a working vacation for my dad, whom I presented with a list of house projects before he arrived.

The trade-off for them to escape the -20 degree temperature in Maine is to help Tommie and I with the projects we're not skilled enough to tackle...which is a lot.  We pretty much max out on anything that requires more than a hammer and a paint brush.

Since it was warm when my parents arrived around Christmas, we first tackled a couple of indoor/outdoor projects.  The old owner's left a play set in the backyard, and even though we don't have kids, I wanted to replace the rotted support beams because during our move-in I found one of Tommie's 21-year-old co-workers enjoying a good swing.  Better to be safe.  A couple new 2x4's with a pressure-treated one on the ground should do the trick.

While shopping for 2x4's, we noticed an entryway door on sale at Home Depot for $159.  Our wood door was swelling and contracting a lot with the temperature fluctuation in North Carolina, and we would have to replace it at some point, so I added it to the "daddy to do" list.  It was a big project to tackle, but everyone helped.  

The new white, steel door has a half-circle window and it helps brighten up the entryway a lot.  It's also really good at keeping out the drafts compared to the old door.  I was able to unload the old door to someone on Craigslist who bought it for $25.  Cha-ching.

Front door before (above) and after (below).

Entryway when we bought it

Entryway now with new paint, light fixture, and door.

Outside with old door & old paint

Outside with new door & new paint. Bam!

Our Home this Christmas

This Christmas, my parents drove to North Carolina from Maine, and my sister flew in from San Diego.

We went to see the Nutcracker in Raleigh.  When I was young, I took ballet and danced in The Nutcracker, so I love it.  Tommie humors me, but his eyes glaze over after the first dance, so it was nice to have my family there too--slightly less glazed.

We had Christmas dinner (ham and the works) in our new dining room.  

We took a two-day trip to Wilmington, NC so my sister and I could take embarrassing photographs with cutout heads from Dawson's Creek in popular filming locations.

We laughed, we fought, we ate lots of food, took lots of pictures, and watched Christmas movies.  We exposed my sister to "life-changing" chicken and waffles.  My sister and I exposed my mom to the movie Magic Mike (that's not a Christmas movie?)  We also started a bunch of new house projects with help from my dad (still in the works).

This Christmas, we were all together, which is something we haven't done in years.

Little Living Tree

We've been hustling to finish painting the dining room just in time for the holidays; speaking of holidays, this Norfolk Island Pine is our tree this year.  We usually don't have a tree at all (you know, trying to "save" the environment and all) but since we're hosting Christmas at our place this year, we felt like we had to do some decorating.

The small potted pine was under $20 at Lowes, and since it's alive, we know it will last even beyond the holiday.

Outside, we wrapped white lights around the front porch rails.  I love how they light up the boxes under the roof and kind of want to keep them up year round.  Just like the rest of the house, we have years to grow into our full-on holiday decorating potential.