Home Improvements 1

It's been a nice few days of intense family time (and eating). We also managed to get two home improvement projects done...one of which has been hanging over our heads for a year.

Project 1

The first project was replacing the chandelier in our dining room. The old light was the one we inherited with the house. It worked fine but was not at all our style. Very ol' school. A year ago, we bought a new chandelier at Ikea. And, for the past year, it's been sitting in our dining room as other projects prevailed (See Bills, Oliver and Bills, Avery).

It took us only about 45 minutes (including a quick call to TDub#1 to double-check a ground wire issue) to do the wiring. Then we opened up the glass shades (cups? I don't know what to call them) to find one had cracked. And of course...Ikea doesn't make the model anymore.

A few squirts of crazy glue later, our dining room was newly lit. We'll have to figure out what to do about that glass, but it's an OK temporary fix. Probably.

The photo is not very good, it's actually black and looks very nice when lit.

Project 2

The second project was the removal of our dated vertical blinds. I'm not sure whether to classify this as:
A. A spur-of-the-moment decision based on a sale at Bed Bath & Beyond, or
B. The culmination of six years of complaining about the blinds.

We replaced them with a double-rod with sheer curtains on the outside layer (to let in light) and tab-topped opaque curtains on the inside layer. It looks nice. However, the public will have to wait for photos, as something bizarre has happened to the rechargeable batteries on our camera and they won't...recharge.