Ringing in the New Year!

We did more housework today. Tammy focused on the two bathrooms upstairs; David washed the walls because the dust stirred up by the floor restoration lightly coated everything! Steve installed doorstops, new window latches, bought supplies for the electrician, replacing the too bright 75 watt light bulbs with lower wattage, and assisted Tammy’s father with prepping the installation of mantel mirrors and the restored fireplace in the office.

The electrician completed mundane tasks like fixing the fan in the master bathroom that had burnt out, figuring out the electrical outlet adaptor needed for the dryer, and installing a smoke detector (no, it was not the culprit from yesterday!). Then he replaced the lights in the dining room and at the bottom of the stairs. Steve picked both lamps at Lamps Plus and chose well.

We envisioned a simpler light for the dining room because it was too busy: beaded trim dangled off the fussy mini-shades, and the bottom of the lamp had a busy floral pattern. We thought the medallion was busy enough and wanted to keep both the room’s color scheme and the lamp simple. An effusive crystal chandelier was definitely out of the question. We opted for a bronze pendant chandelier with the opaque shades tilting up for we despise bare nekked bulbs. The graceful, elegant design allows the ceiling medallion to be the focal point, and the light makes a beautiful pattern that highlights the colorful medallion. Even better, it was on clearance at half off the listed price!

The original lamp in the hall seemed a bit dull. The new tiffany lamp in the hallway is about as perfect a match as you can get. Its colors tap into nearly every room downstairs: the leaves hint at the soft, warm blue in Pamela’s room, the red reflected dining room’s dramatic red, and the green unite the garland green in the stairs and the olive tones in Steve’s office. The warm colors blend in well with our peach living room. Because the space is rather confined, an intricate light pattern dances on all the upper walls of this area at the bottom of the stairs. This chandelier brightens our journey every time we pass it going up and down the stairs!

We spent New Year’s Eve at Tammy’s parents’ house and enjoyed more delicious fare. As we are still cleaning the stove and are surviving on microwave food, we were especially thankful for real food. We toasted marshmallows over the fire in their chiminea in the back yard. By ten, the Glasers headed home and passed out in Camp Glaser. David was the only one who decided to stay up to watch and hear the massive firework explosions ringing in the New Year.