Back in Business

We're lucky enough that this house came with an attic fan. It's truly fantastic, with a few windows open it's like having the A/C on full blast. However.. it either hadn't been used much in the last few years or this past winter was particularly rough on it, because the first time we ran it the belt broke. Considering that for all we know that belt was as old as the fan/house (it certainly looked it), this wasn't too much of a surprise. It gave us an excuse to visit the local hardware store, which we'd do with or without an excuse for the experience. (I have no idea how anybody ever finds anything there unless you've worked there for.. 40 years? More? Really. I'm not exaggerating. We've given up, we just ask for things we need; this time, the Mr. said, "Attic fan belt broke," and held it up for inspection. "Sure did," was the response; the proprietor disappeared into another room, and after some rustling and the sound of something small scattering across the floor, returned with an intact version of the exact same belt. We figure there's a good chance the 'new' one is as old as the 'old' one, but does it matter if it works?) The Mr. reattached the belt and the fan (big, loud and scary-looking as it is) is back in business. Ahh, moving air. It's great--except that we underestimated how much pollen was still floating around in the air and having it on all day yesterday meant that everything is now covered in a quarter-inch dusting of yellow fuzz. Live and learn.

Update-o-rama, part II: the New Lights

Weee! On a roll. I can't remember if I've already mentioned it or not, but we had some lovely eighties-ariffic outdoor lights in the back and side yards; two over the patio and one to light Captain Muddypaws' egress. I'll let them speak for themselves:

Okay, so not horrible, you know? But they didn't match anything else on the exterior of the house, anywhere. There are some great light fixtures elsewhere (on the front porch and the screen porch)--beautiful craftsman-like, marbled-glass things. Then there were these. There's something kind of "ice cream parlor" about them. So, we found some great little replacements at Home Depot. The Mr. and his father put them up the same weekend the floors went in. And, "ta-daaaa:"

They're a little smaller, overall, than the old fixtures, but they put out the same amount (if not more) light--the clear glass is better for the patio than the white-glazed globes that used to be there. It's a small thing, but it makes a significant difference. AND, since we've been painting and staining a bunch stuff on the patio after dark (more on that later!), we've really appreciated them.

The $5 Chandelier Experiment

Well, before I get too far I'd like to take you all off yer tenterhooks and say that the experiment was a success, thanks in no small part to the help of my father-in-law (and my mother, who didn't say, "you're going to do what to it?" and instead helped me prepare it for a makeover.) Back to the beginning. While ceiling fans are great (we know, we've been living without them), we wanted something a little closer to the ground (have I mentioned the ceilings in the old part of the house are 10 feet?) in the dining room. I'm not a huge fan of overhead lights that hug the ceiling, so a chandelier seemed an obvious option. New chandeliers, however, are expensive. I didn't like a lot of what I saw in home improvement stores. I liked some things I saw elsewhere: Pottery Barn:

Restoration Hardware:

But! spending $300-500 on a light fixture would be painful, I think, even if we could. So we (admittedly) went pretty far in the opposite direction and decided to try and make a $5 chandelier we found at a Habitat ReStore work. The last vestiges of the old fan (sorry for not taking a more complete 'before' picture):

I'm having trouble finding the picture I took of the chandelier, pre-makeover, but it looked pretty much like this--only older, and having been ripped unjudiciously out of the ceiling of its former home:

My father-in law attached a new wire and chain to the top (the old one was about 2 feet long, and since the old fan was in the middle of the room and the table wouldn't be--lest you need to crawl over it to get to the kitchen--we needed some length to swag). We then hung it in the carport to be spray-painted (which, by the way, was an interesting look; it's surreal having a fairly formal-looking chandelier hanging over the hood of your car.) I then spray-painted the whole thing, chain and all, with Valspar "Metal" spray-paint in "Graphite," which is a tad browner than it appears in this picture:

The above was taken after the "candle" sheaths were replaced. They were removeable, so we took them off pre-spray-paint and wrapped painters' tape over the bulb sockets inside. A close-up:

By the way, it wasn't dark when I took this. It was overcast. This was one project that was going on during the "great moving-weekend storm" that left puddles of mud inside and out, made our yard look like a convention of chia pets come to roost, and effectively splattered all of the tile-and-saw-dust from the goings-on with the floor all over the side of the house. But you know, whatever. We got a good chance to tell if there were any roof leaks. So... given the chandelier, the wiring kit, and 2 cans of spray paint (I probably could have gotten away with one, but I wanted to be sure it was as even as possible), we're now up to about $27 for the whole project. Finally, my father-in-law attached the whole thing to the ceiling where the fan had been, and we flipped the breaker. Success! In situ, with ten tiny shades attached (these we found at Lowe's):

Not too shabby, for a total of about $60 (including the shades, which weren't strictly necessary, and the extra hardware for the swag hook, which needed to be longer than the one in the kit due to how the ceiling was constructed). We're really pleased with it, and it makes the room look a whole lot different. So.. lessons learned, I guess--it's great to have a family member who's handy with the electrical stuff (had we not--I'm thinking of that Pepsi Max commercial. "Ready?.... Nooo."), and don't try to spray-paint the underside of something while your face is four inches away from it and upside-down. Especially if you wear contacts. My eyeballs haven't fallen out yet, but it was iffy there for awhile. More pictures to come, once the room is clear of boxes and we get the table/chairs in place. Thanks to all who helped!