Okay, NOW we’re in the final stretch. I think. Maybe. We probably have less than a month to go?
It’s been a busy, busy few weeks… in a good way. The outside of the house is almost totally done. We just need to have the back porch screened in. Otherwise, the siding and trim are finished. The exterior lights are all done, except for the driveway lights. Those likely won’t go up until we’re done getting major deliveries by massive trucks.
We have a few rooms that are totally finished at this point: the guest bedroom, both offices, and the dining room. We’ve had can lights throughout the house for months, and now we’re starting to get the fixtures installed.
Speaking of lights. I’m pretty adept at picking things out and making decisions, but I struggled with fixture selection. If I found something I liked, it was expensive or didn’t match the other fixtures in the room. Likewise, if something matched and was within budget, I hated it. To further complicate things, several of the lights I wanted were sold out by the time I was ready to buy them. Add into that the stress of trying to find wall lamps that could be hardwired in the master bedroom, fan-lights with the proper damp ratings for both outside porches, and getting two lights that could be hung in areas with 16′ ceilings? It was a lot. Even for someone as Type A as I am. But it’s done. I never have to do it again if I don’t want to.
One thing I wish I’d been more intentional about is the temperature of the lighting. I went with cool for the can lights and then warm for the fixtures. The thought process being that the can lights are for when you really need to see what you’re doing (cleaning, decorating, frantically scouring the floor for an earring back before the dog can eat it, etc.) and the fixtures are more everyday lights when you don’t need “task lighting.” But I’m realizing now that when they’re both on together, it looks pretty bizarre.
On the other hand, there are rooms/areas where warm lighting changes the color of the paint too much for my liking. For example, having warm light in the guest bath isn’t really working for me.
So I have a long road ahead figuring out which areas get what bulbs. Yay.
Another thing that’s really picked up steam since the last post is all the built-ins. You can see the guest bathroom one up there, but we’ve made progress in the laundry room, water closet, basement bathroom, and—my favorite—the master bathroom.
Funny story about the backlit mirrors: The ones I originally wanted were stupid-expensive, albeit a bit nicer. However, the entire Lowe’s network apparently only had one in stock. So I found this perfectly delightful replacement and saved a couple hundred bucks to boot. And I hesitate to even say this because I know once Mike reads it, I’ll never have a quiet moment in the bathroom again, but they have Bluetooth speakers in them. The pricier ones did not.
House of Hyperbole 