New Lights & A Few Tips

I finally pushed and complained enough that Eric and I finally made some commitments to changing out the lights in our house.

  (Need I remind that our house was ancient looking. It's a great little house, but it had ALL white walls, those yellow light switch covers, this ugly yellow wood, and it also has these ugly light fixtures to go with it's "I've never been updated" look.) 

Seriously? What is that? Ugly little light. I wanted to replace it with track lighting. you'll see what happened....

Honestly, there's just too much going on here, since the middle thing is the sky light! I just can't fix it the way I want to without ripping apart the whole kitchen

Things to Keep in Mind When Shopping for Lights

1. Bring along pictures of your rooms. 

Consider taking pictures at night when you actually use the light fixtures so you can understand how you want the space to look. 

2. Look at lots of lights, and check them out everywhere. 

Shop around. 

The boutique store downtown had $$$$ lights, but the lights we wanted ended up being bout the same price as the lights at Home Depot, and they ended up looking nicer.

3. When you decide on a light consider the lightbulb it needs, make sure it's something simple. 

the first light fixtures we picked for the kitchen had the weirdest lightbulbs. They didn't even sell them at Home Depot. Thus, we said, this isn't for us! We don't want to have to replace the fixture because we can no longer buy bulbs for it! 

4. Purchase lightbulbs  with the fixtures. 

I don't know how we counted wrong. but we are short one light. Whats the point of installing beautiful lights if you can't turn them on? 

We purchased led chandelier bulbs for the one set from Costco. Costco seems to have the best prices on led bulbs ATM. 

Why LED? No mercury is a big selling point for me. If you can afford it, it's a great option. Plus I think the bulbs like nicer than the curly-q

5. Consider Future Renovations and Current Fixtures

We already replaced one fixture in the kitchen. 

We talk about updating the flooring of the house so that was a consideration. how will these lights look with our future renovations?

I think that's all of my tips that I found useful. 

while it is beautiful and will match our future hardwood floors
it doesn't give off as much light as I want. Even Eric wishes it was more, but c'est le vie

we ended up matching the two other fixtures with the fixtures over the sink
It gives the kitchen WAY MORE light at night time.
As well as a much more modern and sleek look

Now we are looking for a fan! The fan we love has a crappy light kit and the fan in the kitchen is off-centre and I don't want to really make it a focal point because of it's weird position in the ceiling. 

We also need floor lamps. 

A Quick Update on Eric's Projects

Eric is my dear husband, and like myself he has his own set of projects. Unlike my projects, his projects are usually centered around tools (especially power tools) and making a really really big mess (aside from me, who only makes a big mess).

So, let's review what he's done in the house! Keep in mind, it has been over a month we've been in the house!


1. Our very first project was putting in a shower curtain rod in the bathroom since the house didn't even come with a shower curtain rod! (previous owner was kind of a very cheap person) So before we even got started we needed a rod, and Eric and I splurged and bought one that is built into the wall and one with a curve! Yay more Space! We put a matching one downstairs too.

2. Sound Insulating the 'Basement Suite.' Because the basement suite is on the ground floor and it was kinda noisy before, now it's not! Yay! Eric made such a mess and it took only 6 packages of that stuff (in which only one ended up smelling like rotten fish and we had to return)

What does he think he's gotten himself into! 

It didn't take long for him to learn that this project needed a face mask! 

It required Eric having to take down all of the stupid tiles and then put them up again. It took much begging for Eric not to replace the tiles. (like seriously, it's just our suite, how rich does he think we are!)


3.  Eric helped me take down all of the kitchen cabinet doors! I don't know if this counts as one of his projects, but he took the task over from me and just went to town using all of his tools! 




















4. Installing the Dishwasher! This was one of our next big tasks! Well, Eric's projects. We replaced our new appliances and because our new fridge was too big for the 'fridge spot' we had a hole, a perfect spot to build in a dishwasher! And I wanted a dishwasher! Life is now simple and easy. 


Step one of this project involved Eric spending some time under the sink putting together the plumbing. This took forever!!!!!!! the plastic and the copper and the .... Eric took 5 trips to Home Depot that glorious weekend! 


Step two involved some electrical which went undocumented. This step would be later undone when Eric and his brother decided to wire it in (where the old garbarater was) instead of plug it in. The plug was later moved upwards where it is now accessible above cabinet.

huh, how are we going to do this!

This is where it's going. 

and push! 

Step three required some help from Eric's dad in building the case to fit the dishwasher. The case they built was too small. Remember the measure too many times and cut once! He did manage to fit it in! And it's quite like mouse! 


Look what I found under the sink! 

5.  Replacing and fixing all of the light switches and outlets. I don't have a before pictures but they were those stupid yellow ones with the little flick thing. Eric hated them, and after painting he bought some new decor ones and changed all the ones in the house. He even fliped all of the outlets so that they look like mickey mouses and you can easily plug stuff in! 

 6. Project 6 is incomplete. He's adding a new fan in the bathroom. There was never one, and Eric fears the winter in that bathroom. Here is a shot of the bathroom. 

 7. While doing project 6 we decided to replace the horrible yellow gold light fixture with something more modern! 

So not that quick!