Rainy days and Chandeliers

The weather changes fast up here in the North.  Last week we were inhaling smoky air which only lasted a few days before the rain came, and we have been enjoying scattered showers ever since. Along with the rain came fresh, crisp air - autumn is here.  In the valley it seemed like September stayed warm and October was the transition month.  We went from wearing sandals, shorts, and summer skirts to wool socks, pants, and flannel shirts.

A fully functioning bath and shower

 Thankfully, Corey finished up our bathtub/shower and installed the toilet before all of the rain.  It would have been interesting to take a shower in the rain, but quite chilly in this weather.

A huge milestone was crossed this weekend.  I had told Corey that Haefen would not really be my home until I could take a bath in the bathtub.

 A toilet that flushes

You see, every Sunday I take a long soak in Epsom salt water along with about 15 drops of lavender essential oil and I cleanse, exfoliate, and moisturize with my own specially-formulated cocoa butter mask.  I have not been able to keep this routine for about nine weeks until this last Lordsday, which truly made the day a "day of rest" for me. I am very grateful for Corey's hard work and Bruce's help a couple of weekend's ago.

Now some texture, a sink, some paint, and wood trim is all we need to complete our bathroom.  I do not plan on posting more photos of the bathroom until it is finished.

As you may know, we have been eating outside all summer on our deck, which has been great!  We did not want to move our dining room table into the dining room until all the painting was done.  Even though it is a small room it took me weeks to finish the job.  We had to take down the chandelier so that I could paint the ceiling and rather than spend $200 on a new one that I liked, we decided to upgrade the old one which also had to be swapped out with the largest chandelier in the living room.  As usual, lots of details had to be worked out to simply put a table in the dining room!

After everything in the dining room was painted, the kids and I manoeuvred the hulking, solid wood table we bought off of Craigslist (from a very nice lady) into the house.  We brought in all six chairs that came with it from the garage and looked at the small space that we call the "dining room".  It was kind of hard to give up our huge hallway into the kitche, but eating indoors in a small dining room seemed better than freezing through dinner every night in the spacious outdoors.

Dinner by flame

The chandelier was still missing when this picture was taken.  We had been eating by kerosene lamp which is cozy and totally fits in with our house.  It felt rather primitive and rustic, like Little House on the Prairie.  The first time that we lit the lamp was when Greta and Bruce were still here and we continued using it until last night when Corey installed our new and improved chandelier.

three-light chandelier in the living room

I forgot to take pictures before we took our chandelier down, but it looked very similar to the two wagon wheel chandeliers in the living room.  The living room had one five-light chandelier and one three-light chandelier which is pictured here.  There was another three-light chandelier in the dining room.  We decided to put the five-light chandelier in the dining room and the three-light chandelier with its matching partner in the living room.
As you can see, this beauty has bright brass hardware with kerosene lamp glass sconces.  The base looks like a wagon wheel.  When I was looking for glass sconces on Amazon a lady described having these exact chandeliers and said that they had been in her house for thirty years which confirmed my suspicion that these fixtures were straight from the 1980's.
I am not a fan of the Eighties and I tend to abruptly turn away from anything that even remotely resembles that tacky and ostentatious decade.  However, the wagon wheel held my attention and beckoned to my creative sensibilities.

not so 1980's chandelier 

So, I finally decided (after several people told me that I should) to paint the hardware and find new sconces.  This seemed like a much cheaper option than buying a new light fixture and salvaging the wagon wheel seemed worth it.

I spray painted all the hardware matte black and found alabaster white glass sconces at Lowes.  Corey helped me do some touch up work and he reattached all the hardware, then he hung this chandelier in the dining room so now we have electric lighting.

We are so happy with the results.  Not only do we have plenty of light in the dining room, but we also get to enjoy our truly unique rustic/chic light fixture that we transformed.  Good-bye 1980's, you can't have my chandelier back.

underside of the wagon wheel

the dining room is complete!