Welcome back to week 3 of The One Room Challenge™. Thank you for following along as 20 of us
design pros and enthusiasts willingly agree to tackle a room
redo in six short weeks and document the process at the behest of our fearless leader Linda of Calling It Home. I am tackling the dine-in portion of my
kitchen. To catch
up from the beginning, click the following links below:
WEEK 1: Plan
& Inspiration
WEEK 2: Progress
Report - Floors
So here we are at the mid-point in the challenge which I
like to
think of as the moment of truth. This is
where I begin to take stock of the things I have accomplished versus my long
wish list to assess what I can reasonably finish by the end of
6 weeks. This is
the point at which my dewy delusions of grandeur begin to lose their dewy
luster of possibility. An ambitious
plan, in the best of circumstances, to refinish floors, run electricity,
wallpaper, paint walls, sew banquette cushions, and build a table begins to get
a little dodgy when halted at the electricity part going into the
mid-point. If you will recall, the
mister and I do all of our own work so getting stalled at the second item on an
already lengthy punch list does not bode well.
Insert dramatic music.
Get yourself a cup of something leaded because this is a long one today. For as much progress as the mister and I made last week with
the floors, this week was supremely frustrating. I had hoped to be able to cross off not only
the electricity and lighting install but also painting the ceiling, walls, and trim as well as
having the banquette cushions sewn this week. All predicated
upon a simple lighting move which ended up being anything but simple.
Sadly, these electricity issues occupied our
efforts the ENTIRE weekend. Whomever
wired our house prior to our arrival was a closet pyromaniac – as in clearly
they wanted the house to go up in flames with their wacky wiring. Our first clue that we were in for some
electrical pyrotechnics was when we removed our switchplate to find mostly red wires. I’ll
spare you an electricity lesson but know this, for the existing 3-way switch
that we were looking to swap, there should have been a black, a white, a red,
and a ground wire. Not ALL reds.
Suffice it to say, that we spent all day Saturday
undoing the mess that was our kitchen wiring.
Midway through I was more than ready to throw in the towel and call our
electrician. But my mister is nothing if
not determined and he tamed that wiring beast.
Sunday was spent cutting more holes in the ceiling and making patches so
that I could finally swap out the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad ceiling
fan that hung in the middle of no man’s land by our refrigerator. What is it with men and ceiling fans? I will never understand.
 |
| my mister and M.I.L. |
To lend this saga context, it has infuriated me to no end to have a
random ceiling fan/light fixture that hung off center from our butcher block
island. Aside from wanting to burn every
ceiling fan I lay my eyes upon, I have wanted to anchor my lighting situation
in the work triangle area over my butcher block island. But the mister kept warning me that this was no small feat. I kept thinking he was blowing smoke. How hard can it be to move a light
fixture 3 feet?! The island is where I do all my prep work and
often times set up a buffet of sorts. As
such I needed a significant light source.
Outside of being fugly, the fan’s lighting did project light outwards in 4
directions covering the stove, the refrigerator, the island, and the sink. So I have been on the search for an
affordable statement light(s) over my butcher block. I needed both form and function from one
light or a pair of pendants centered over the butcher block that would still
illuminate the work triangle. I love the
idea of a statement chandelier over an island but with 8’ ceilings I knew I
would be limited due to head clearance.
Every time I entertain, people tend to stand around the butcher block
chatting and leaning in to grab nosh or drink so a chandelier would only invite
more head banging. Refer to Week 1 for that reference. Shade
pendants would not suffice as they direct light downwards rather than outwards
so I have been on the lookout for a glass globe style pendant.
Most of the ones I liked were well outside my budget but
I had spied one at the Ballard Designs Outlet store a few weeks ago with which
I became immediately smitten. For those of you who follow me on IG, you will know the one. Glass
globe with brass detail. Purrrrrfect.
But alas, it had some sort of defect and at
$300+ which reflected the outlet markdown and the defect markdown, I thought it
was still too spendy for a defective light.
I spotted a few more options that might work but ended up leaving empty
handed and still in hot pursuit of a functional but beautiful light option for
the island. But with the challenge
timeline ticking down, I knew I had to make a decision quickly. However, the imprint of that gorgeous brass
globe became the standard against which I compared my other options. None lived up to the glorious globe so in a
desperate attempt to banish my ‘what if-itis’ I returned to the Ballard Designs outlet with husband
and daughter in tow, on a SATURDAY, fully believing that the globe would be
gone. In case you aren’t aware, things
move as quickly out of that outlet store as they do Home Goods. If you spot something you like, you best get
it while the gettin’s good. Not to
mention, the Ballard Design Outlet is around the corner from IKEA so most
weekend warriors make a day of going to both which means TONS of people. Yay.
I can’t think of anything that infuriates my husband
more than shopping except crowds. Armed
with an angry husband and a spasmo 5 year old who can’t keep her hands to herself, I had
little faith in our chances. Imagine my
palpable glee when I spotted the globe.
But, the already angered mister in his incredibly frustrating albeit
practical frugality, began smashing my globe dreams asunder with protests of
‘thou dost want to spend too much’ for a busted globe. The tag read ‘short on light.’ Mr. Practical wanted to determine if that
meant short in length on one of the light body arms or if that meant faulty
wiring. My mister felt pretty confident
that he could fix either but the marked down price was still prohibitive to
him. I was still hopped up on the globe
juice to which the earnest shop keeper recognized a frenzied dog hot on the
scent and quickly dispatched for the manager to see what they could ‘do.’ The long and short of it is this: the light was tested with a bulb to determine
one light did not in fact work; the wise manager recognized an opportunity to
move undesirable merchandise that most people could not fix; I got my gorgeous globe that retailed for close to $400 for $75. Yep.
My mister took that globe to work and not only fixed the short but rewired the whole fixture as he deemed the overall wiring to be
subpar. Turns out the ‘short’ wasn’t
really a short but rather caused by someone enthusiastically screwing in a $1
light bulb and bending the contact. And
yes, he still rewired it after that discovery.
But let it be stated, he is as impressed with the quality and
workmanship of the brass fixture as I am – and that is saying a lot as not much
impresses him. The globe is everything I
dreamed it would be. I wish I could link
to the source, but sadly I cannot find it on the Ballard site or in any of the
catalogues so I do not know if it is still available or discontinued but it is
the stuff of my brasstastic dreams.
But back to the lighting/electricity debacle. As I said, after addressing the wiring mess
on Saturday, Sunday we planned to hang the globe, patch the ceiling holes, and
move on to upholstery. Best laid plans
of mice and the Vs. That gorgeous light
fixture is SUPER heavy and I was the one holding it over my head while my
mister attached it to the ceiling. Once
attached, we discovered the threaded pipe was longer than the depth of the
junction box so the cover plate was not flush with the ceiling. After much more atlas shrugging of that heavy
globe over my head and plenty of colorful language, we determined we needed to
shorten the threaded pipe which was soldered to the fitting. Say what? It is at this point that I begin to question
the meaning of life and my place in this cruel world. Off to the back garage we go where my mister
performs his machining wizardry.
Meanwhile I am entertaining thoughts of playing baseball with the globe
and dreaming of the vat of pinto grigio that will be required to erase this weekend from my
memory.
Morale of the story.
We got the deal of the century on the globe but more than paid our
weight in sweat equity to get the dang thing hung. Although I can’t blame the gorgeous light. But my mister certainly blames me. Can't wait to show you the sconces I selected from Lamps Plus - super gorgeous also but will wait to show you until after the wallpaper is installed. Next week I hope to have a lot less sweat and
a lot more pretty. Now let’s go take a
peek at what all of my talented friends are up to this week.
A special thank you to the following sponsors and supporters of Chez V and The One Room Challenge that are graciously providing items to help me bring my vision for this room to life:
All photos and styling by Emily Vanderputten unless otherwise noted
kisses, mrs. V
