Light, Space & Time

So here in Charlotte, we are snowed in.

Good news: it’s beautiful outside. Bad news: I have too much time to shop online for housewares. We need to buy about six more lighting fixtures, and there seems to be an ever-expanding number of choices. Every time I begin to look at different lighting websites I fall into some what of a ceiling light stargate, where all sense of space and time becomes distorted and where I can lose hours, even days, of my life.

I have spent a disgusting amount of time obsessing over lights, and I am not ashamed to admit it. Lighting isn’t cheap, so comparing prices and finding lighting fixtures that I like for a  price that will keep me on budget can get a little tricky, but it’s absolutely necessary.

Have you been looking for lighting for your home? Below is a list of some of my favorite sites to find good deals on cool lights. Maybe you can avoid the wormhole better than I.

Websites for lighting fixtures:

• Overstock
• Joss and Main
• Wayfair
• Lighting Direct
• One Kings Lane
• Young House Love’s lighting at Shades of Light 

Different Styles

• Flush Mount – Fit snug against the ceiling so you don’t see anything between light and ceiling. These show very little. They are the nuns of lighting fixtures.
• Semi-Flush Mount – These tend to be off the ceiling a few inches. Still classy, these lights show a little leg.
• Chandeliers – High-class ladies of the night, these lights are all flash and leave nothing to the imagination. But we’re still drawn to them. And willing to pay.
• Drum Pendant – These hang low. They have a tendency to wobble to and fro. They also look like drums.
• Bowl Pendant – Same as drum pendants, but these look like bowls. No surprises here.

I ended up purchasing quite a few of the semi-flush mounts for rooms throughout the house, and a chandelier for the master walk in closet. Below are all of the lights for the house that I purchased thus far.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Do you have any recommendations for good places to find inexpensive lighting fixtures? Tell us – we’d love to share your ideas.

Upstairs Bathroom Tile Updates

I can’t tell you how excited I am about this shower.  We used white subway tile and for the border, I ordered grey penny round tile from Overstock.

They started on the floor tile as well. We went with a white tile that has hues of grey which goes really well with the penny round tile in the shower.

 Tara brought paint swatches to go over the color scheme of the house. We talked about using airy, neutral and clean colors. I am in love. What do you think?

Renovation Updates

It has been super exciting seeing our house transform. Everyday it looks a little bit closer to being finished.

Here is the beginning of the bathroom demo on the upstairs bathroom:

                          

     

Everything is demo-ed now and below you can see they have put up the dry walls. They are beginning to tile and we have our built in shower self. Also our new tub is in. Thank god the old tub is gone!

Here is a closer look of the shelf:

Here is the downstairs bath. They removed all the tile on the floor – except around the toilet. Eventually it will obviously all come out.  I can’t wait to see what it looks like with the new tile we picked out! 

No worries- more to come!

Oh Sweet Tile O’ Mine…..Part II.

Listen. I can’t let Trent take all the glory for this job. He slave-labored me into manning this monster for about 4 straight hours.

Evidently, it was too much tool for him. 

Watch out Nicole Curtis, I may be the next Rehab Addict.

unbe-LEAVE-able

We knew going into this that we would be doing a lot of work on the inside of the house, but I failed to consider the amount of work the outside of the house needed. Since we were still working on plans for the inside of the house, Trent and I decided to get started with the outside.

Now, I’m not saying I can fully appreciate what sort of jungle our boys faced in the 60s when they got to ‘Nam, but I have to think I have a better idea now.

What our yard lacked in grass, we made up for in bamboo, ivy, leaves, dirt patches, monkey grass and crab grass. So many types of grass, but no good, regular grass. Having no grass is a terrible problem. Just ask anyone who listens to Phish.

Our house had been vacant for about six months before we bought it and not particularly well-manicured prior to that, so we had a big project ahead of us. We have almost a half-acre and every inch of the lot was in need of some love.

The above depicts the random patch of bamboo we had growing in the back yard. Oh wait, bamboo grows in North Carolina? Ummm yes. Yes, it does. Right in our own back yard. I know what you are thinking and I’m with you – we need to order us some pandas.

Here is the back yard view. There is  a random pile of leaves someone cobbled together. Maybe it was a kindly neighbor. Maybe it was God. Maybe it’s the leaves learning to work together to plot our demise.  Either way, the only good use for this amount of yard waste is the rapid decomposition of a dead body. (Note: I’m on a Dexter kick on Netflix right now).

Do you guys have any advice on tackling this thing? Does anyone have a tractor and/or panda I can borrow?