New Kitchen Lights

We've slowly been working on the kitchen since I removed the hanging cupboards, and last week we had an electrician come in and install can lights in our kitchen.  This was one project we didn't feel like tackling ourselves- wiring new lights wasn't something we wanted to mess around with.

Bad picture  of the old mismatched lights- I forgot to take a picture before I started changing out the lights.

The 2x4's and crown molding on the ceiling were taken down quite a while ago.

The electricians took down the large nipple light (yuck!) and put a can light there as well as four more. They also installed a box for the pendant lights over the sink.

Both the nipple light and the pendant lights also just had holes punched in the drywall and wires hanging down. I'm really not sure why they cheaped out on these, since there's lots of other details in the house that are upgrades.  Maybe it was just the electrician who did a crap job?

Holes waiting to be patched

Next up on the list: patch the holes, then finish painting the kitchen ceiling and the kitchen walls and install crown molding.

Even though it's not finished, the kitchen is already so much brighter and looks so much better. I love the light yellow on the walls- it's so cheerful.

New light over the dining table, where LMS is doing schoolwork

I'm thinking of putting some beadboard on the walls in the dining area. Not sure if I'd paint it white or light gray, though. What do you think?

Painting Progress

(the new light in the hall bathroom)

As I mentioned before, I've been painting several rooms- the kitchen, a small hallway next to the kitchen, the master bedroom, the upstairs hallway, hall bathroom, and part of the stairway.

Because they were ceiling-mounted, I replaced the lights in the kitchen, master bedroom, and upstairs hallway when I painted the ceilings. The wall-mounted hall bathroom light fixture didn't get removed till I started on all the walls.

I didn't take a picture of the old light, but it was a smaller version of the one in our bathroom

(which will also not be staying). The wall color looks quite nice in this pic, but it's actually a lime green, so the master bathroom will be painted in the near future.

I also removed the mirror to make it easier to paint everything. Once I got the light off, though, I found out that the builder cheaped out and didn't put a box in the wall- they just punched a hole and threaded the wires through it.

I carefully enlarged the hole to fit the box (after flipping the circuit breaker, first, of course- no death wishes here), threaded the wires into the appropriate spots, and installed the box. Apparently the bathroom has been repainted, but it was repainted builder's beige (why?!!) and they didn't remove the light first. So I also had to spackle the paint lines and the holes where the fixture was attached to the wall. The new fixture has a lot smaller face plate than the old one.

After two coats of paint, everything looks so much brighter and cleaner! Bye-bye grungy, scuffed-up walls, hello clean and bright ceilings and walls.

There's still more work to be done {touch up the paint where the ceiling meets the walls, paint the trim, paint the sink cabinet and medicine cabinet white, cut and install a frame around the mirror, and install a new TP holder} but I love how much better it looks already.

Every time I walk past the clean, bright walls I can't help but smile!

So what have YOU been up to lately?

eating snow cones while waiting for the movie to start at the drive in theater

The last month we've been insanely busy:

• Mr M had to travel for drill
• he had a bunch of appointments and things to take care of before he could go on an overseas business trip
• we finally finished all our adoption stuff (interviews, home visit, training, and online profile are all done- just waiting for the written approval now)
• the usual house stuff- we finally got the last couple boxes unpacked and sorted (yay!)
• we went on a short camping trip
• LMS started swim lessons
• LMS finished kindergarten
• and the list goes on and on

I got tired all over again just typing the list. No wonder I haven't had the energy to blog lately.

Things have slowed down a smidge (finishing Mr M's stuff and the adoption stuff helped a lot), and my current project is to finally make progress painting the inside of the house. I've only painted three rooms since we moved in last spring: LMS's room, the library, and the basement rec room. That leaves the kitchen, front room, two stairways, two hallways, two bathrooms, and three bedrooms to paint. The other two bathrooms have recent paint jobs that I'm leaving for now.

Since the predominant color in our house is grungy builder's beige, except the lime green in the master bed/bath, it's important to me to get the walls looking clean and pretty. The grunge is really starting to get to me.

I've been holding off actually starting because I'm going to put paneling on the front room ceiling and we're installing can lights in the kitchen and we need to find a long ladder to do the ceiling above the stairs, all of which need to be done before the walls can be painted. I've recently realized I can move forward anyway by painting the dining part of the kitchen and working on the upstairs rooms until the ceiling stuff is finished.

Last week I spackled all the dents and little holes left by the previous owners, then I sanded and respackled where necessary, then sanded again. Spackle dust makes such a mess! I ended up working on the little hallway between the kitchen and front room, the kitchen, the stairs going upstairs, the upstairs hall, hall bath, and the master bedroom.

After the dust settled a bit I painted all the ceilings white and installed new light fixtures in the dining area of the kitchen, the upstairs hall, and the master bedroom, which makes a big impact for not a lot of money.

After two coats of flat ceiling white, I'm now ready to move on to the walls this week: "Shore" by Valspar for the small hallway, the stairway, the upstairs hall, and the hall bath. It's the same color I used in the library, and I like that it's still a light, neutral color, but with more gray than the current yellowish beige. So far it seems to go with just about any other color, which makes it very versatile. I tried other colors for the upstairs hallway and stairway, but they just weren't working, so we'll stay neutral for now. I'll use "Lemon Butter" by Valspar for the kitchen, and gray for the master bed. The gray is leftover from when the previous owners painted the front room, but it's a bit dark, so I'll add some white to lighten it up, and maybe a touch of blue as well.

We're also finishing up swimming lessons this week, which will be nice. I like the progress LMS has made, and she's got a great teacher, but it's definitely a time commitment that I'm ready to give up :)

How busy has your summer been?