A big congratulations to Rick & Quinn on the purchase of their first house together! With an upcoming wedding (and now plenty of pool parties) these two have lots to plan.
Note to future buyers: You can run, but you can’t hide from your closing day “sold” photo. The Rick-on-a-stick speaks for itself.
Remember that one time I spent my Monday morning monkeying around under my house? Look what I found under there!…(other than spider webs, miscellaneous creepy crawlies, and dirt that hadn’t seen the light of sun in over half a century)…
It’s a disgusting, old wooden ladder that needs to come out from under there and find new life. Clearly a diamond in the rough. The wheels are still turning on what to do with this guy, but he’ll definitely take his place in the Rehabilitation Station soon.
Now that I made it safely back to less scary turf after my early week crawlspace adventure, I’m on a serious kick for getting my den in working order. When it came time to round up a coffee table, there was no better place to look than the $7.00 glass top junker I snagged at a thrift store months back. Just your standard paint and polish definitely wouldn’t hurt.
Propped on two pieces of scrap wood to make sure no smidge is left unpainted…
Primed. Oil-based since I was a tad on the lazy side and didn’t feel like sanding the finish off of the original wood…
Finally a couple coats of paint I already had laying around the house…
Let’s be honest with ourselves here people. I really only wanted this guy to join in on all of this den action for one reason and one reason only: I definitely couldn’t turn down an additional hiding place for the excessive amount of magazines taking over my house.
I feel really good about it.
One of the perks of my incredibly unpredictable work schedule are the random Monday mornings that I have 100% free. Not every Monday, but on those mornings without an appointment in sight, I can lounge around all morning watching hours upon hours of TV, right?…well that’s just crazy talk. Free time in this casa calls for around the house and under the house adventures. Explanation begins…
When my parents asked if I could hang on to a sofa for my brother for a few months, of course I agreed. After all, I have a den already piled full of random items awaiting for their rehab number to be called. What’s one more piece of furniture in the mix?…But soon the wheels began to turn. As an enemy of clutter, nothing stays in my house unless I A: need it or B: like it. This sofa was serving absolutely no purpose in my den/storage room, which left me constantly staring at it like an intruder, and I just don’t have time for such negativity. Time to put this guy to good use…besides, June had already discovered its potential as an optimal squirrel stalking perch, and around these parts, she always wins.
Before I could even think about turning this space into a bonafide den, the TV situation had to be resolved. Currently in my living room at the front of the house, my television selections were in plain view for any across the street neighbor or passerby glancing in my front window. Not only was I growing tired of sharing cable with the entire neighborhood, but I have no doubt they were becoming increasingly annoyed at my refusal to watch and re-watch anything other than the same episodes of Bravo’s Real Housewives of NYC. The time had come to move my TV friend to the den.
Great plan! Let’s do it. Only one minor hiccup. My den was not currently wired for cable. The logical solution would be to call in the cable guy for assistance, but sometimes thinking outside the box is more fun and definitely less expensive.
Lucky for me, the past owners were silly enough to drill through perfectly lovely hardwoods…
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…so all I had to do was move the cable cord from my living room to my den via my dark and scary crawlspace.
The all too familiar “I can totally do this myself” thought came to me last night as I was falling asleep and as a result, I was up bright and early prepared to wind my way through plumbing pipes to reposition my cable cord.
After a little contorting and a whole lot of stagnant under the house dirt and grime, mission accomplished.
Now I just have to hide the cable cord, but we’ll save that for another day.
Good news, friends! The end is near. When I left you yesterday, our old-made-new light fixture was assembled by not yet fulfilling its full illuminating potential. For goodness sakes, let’s get this bad boy hung and get the weekend started.
Yesterday, we left a few inches of wire exposed. Using a pair of wire cutters, I stripped the end of the wire about an inch or so.
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Once you are ready to hang your fixture, stop and read this seemingly no-brainer of a disclaimer: Electrical currents hurt. Head to your breaker box and turn off the breaker to your light fixture. Then test the wires with a voltage tester ($10 at the hardware store) to make sure you’re in the clear.
If you are hanging your new light fixture where an old fixture once dangled (like I was) you should be able to easily loosen the screws mounting the old fixture to the ceiling and expose two sets of wires joined together with wire connectors. Detach the old fixture wire from those coming out of the ceiling and reattach your new fixture wires by twisting and securing with wire connectors.
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Then tuck the wires with connectors back into the box and screw securely back into place. True confession: I know my descriptions are a bit rocky and right about now you visual learners are thanking me for photos. You are welcome.
Ready to see my lovely new light fixture in all its rehabbed glory?
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I used the ceiling hook included in the swag light kit to anchor my light in just the right position.
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With a vote of 2 to 0, the general consensus in this household is that this kitchen nook is quickly becoming a favorite spot. For me, the light fixture tops this space off. June dog, on the other hand, has her own reasons for loving this corner of the casa…
Have a wonderful weekend, y’all!
Post blog post text from know it all brother-in-law…
Booyah! Happy now, Ollie? :)
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Here we go with day 3 of our DIY light fixture knock off from Vintage Revivals. DAY 3?! Before you become too overwhelmed by the apparent workload, the project from beginning to end only takes a couple of hours (and this includes plenty of time spent twiddling thumbs while paint dries). To spare you from the world’s longest blog post, I just decided to break the project up and share little by little this week. Feeling better? Do-it-yourself confidence level rising? Great! Let’s keep going with this bad boy.
Last I left you, we’d just outfitted the lamp with a longer wire better suited to my space.
Now let’s keep pushing forward with a little paint and assembly. First up, removing the clips from each of the hanging baskets. We’ll only need to hang on to (and paint) three clips, so go ahead and toss the remaining three.
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Once the baskets are free, head outside with your can of spray paint, lamp, baskets, hooks, chain to cover your wire (plenty of extra chain comes in the swag light kit if you are without), and any other miscellaneous parts from your old lamp that you feel may come in handy as you reassemble. Better to spray paint too much than too little.
Be sure to protect your light bulb sockets. I stuffed each socket with bits of tissue to make sure the spray paint stayed clear of these areas.
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Spray away! Let dry and spray again until well coated.
Once nice and dry, time to reassemble our light fixture—once again those dozens of photos we snapped as we were disassembling the original light fixture come in handy here.
Example of old light part still needed: I had to super glue this silly piece of plastic from the original lamp to the top of my upper basket to make sure the lamp fit snuggly.
Remember this piece from the original lamp? It also received the spray paint treatment and came back to hold the lamp in place.
Then, weave the wire through the chain…
And attach the bottom basket using the three spray painted clips.
Nice! Now all we have to do is install this bad boy. I can think of no better Friday blog post than such. See you tomorrow as we wrap up this DIY masterpiece!
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