Dining room (+ more) pictures

Tonight the mister is over at the house talking about the shower door templates. Tomorrow they're installing the closets. And they may take the paper off the floor so we can see how everything looks together. For now, we're optimistic it will look great. We're waiting on the rest of the lights to come in, but what we've got is up. Including this beauty...

Let there be light!

Ohhhhhhh....we have finally finally finally chosen all of the lights! Cue sighs of relief and pay no mind to the teeny tiny voice suggesting we check out maybe just one more website.

Would you like a sneak peek?

Porch and Painting

Porch railings are going in this week:

All those balusters? Individually installed:

Also happening this week is the painting. So far they've painted the trim and the doors, and it doesn't make for a great photo so I'll wait until paint goes up on the walls.

This just in: we finally chose some lights! Not all the lights, but some of them. The mister and I each spent a fair amount of time checking out options online, and in stores. So many choices, it's overwhelming. But, we did come in under budget on the first round of lights. Please let them not be ugly.

Next Tuesday our bathroom vanities arrive, and shortly after the stone people will be out to measure templates for our vanity tops. Light fixture installation will begin, and we'll be pressed to make the final lighting choices. The front door will arrive in a few weeks, and we'll need to choose front door hardware. I've begun hunting door knobs for the inside doors. Soon we'll look at carpet choices for the bedrooms. Heads up: there won't be any boring beige carpets in this joint!

Size matters (when it comes to lighting, that is)

I'm a huge fan of designer Candice Olson. One thing she pays a lot of attention to in her room designs is light. But she makes it look so effortless, you think to yourself: well, how hard can it be? What's there to figure out? It's just lights, right? Come along and I'll share what we've discovered...

Ugly lighting

We've lived with some ugly lights for more than six years. Like this one:

Seriously, the previous owner had a thing for 'aged bronze' or 'rusted bronze' or 'clearance bin bronze' or whatever finish this is called. I wish I'd saved the sconces that originally adorned the fireplace. Picture water bugs holding vanilla ice cream cones. That's kind of what they looked like. And yes, we've lived with them for more than six years, but they are precisely the motivation behind our light selection.

And no, we still haven't chosen the lights. I continue to pin ideas here and here and, well, here too. If you have a favorite, let me know!

How I use Pinterest

I'm not just on the Pinterest bandwagon, I'm up front handing out bumper stickers, kissing babies, and campaigning for it as one of the best sites ever.

It's been a fantastic way for me to organize ideas and options, especially when I need to show the mister what I'm thinking. I've got a board for most things to do with the house, like carpeting and front doors. Here are other boards I'm currently filling:

• Chandeliers. I'm a sucker for a drum pendant. It's sleek, mid-century, looks classic/modern/retro, comes in a variety of options from fabric to glass, and can be one of the most striking and yet affordable fixtures you can install. Can I get an amen?
• Blue ceilings. A while back I read a great piece on how it's tradition in some places (especially the South) to paint your porch ceiling blue. I'll tell you why soon.
• Staircases: We have some choices about how we want to finish the staircase, and it may affect our other staircase heading downstairs. Mostly to do with the balusters, a word I haven't had occasion to use until this reno.

I also use Pinterest for non-reno things, like storm photos (natch) and letters and numbers.  Are you on Pinterest? Do I follow you? Would love to see what you're working on!

Mixing metals

I am in love with this door knob.

At $169 per piece (I know!), it's spectacularly over budget. Maybe that wouldn't be so terrible if we only needed one or two, but we need ten. Perhaps I could just get these for the bedroom doors, though, and something much cheaper else for the closets and bathrooms?

Forgetting cost for a minute, though, what I'm pondering is mixing metals.

We have chrome in all the bathrooms. Running that finish all through the door hardware - much less the light fixtures - seems a bit much (and awfully...shiny). I like brushed nickel, and oil-rubbed bronze. And between us, I've even taken a shine to some of the brass finishes, too.

It's early days. We've just begun the door knob and light fixture hunt. I expect mixed metals is in our future. And I expect no one but us will notice.

PS: Yes, a new blog design. My BIL's 'feedback' notwithstanding, I wasn't really into the previous design. Maybe I need a mixed metals template.