That's right, nothing is completely done but the kitchen sink. But, it's still looking pretty good even with all of the surrounding, unfinished work due to it's new, light-me-up friend:
We still have to add some quarter round molding to the upper corners of the cabinets (see the gaps?) but it's so much better, right? Especially seeing how far we've come:
As for the pendant itself, it cost us $33 - $15 for the medium-base pendant kit (Home Depot sells a candelabra base, which I wasn't a fan of), $15 for the glass cover, both from Lowe's, and a few bucks for a round electrical box that houses the wires above. Anthony saved us a good chunk of change by installing it himself. All it took was removing the old florescent fixture, filling in and then sanding smooth a few screw holes used to hold it up, and hooking up the new pendant using the existing wires and new electrical box - all while the power was off of course. That whole process was the easy part. :) The tough part came in choosing which glass cover we wanted. In fact, I skipped in and out of both Home Depot and Lowe's and came home with a total of seven covers.
Originally, I thought for sure we'd love the taupe, crackled one on the far left but once it was up and the switch was on, the light it emitted was too orangey-brown and we wanted light and bright. The second choice was the seeded glass dome, second in from the left. We actually let this one hang for a few days and loved the look but ultimately decided we didn't like the fact that it clearly showed the bulbs housing. So after nixing all the rest, one-by-one, we fell in love with this one:
It looks magnificent lit up...which unfortunately the point and shoot isn't good at capturing. Initially, I was worried there would be too much white around but with the valance in the background and the window behind, it's just perfect. :)
And that's all there is to write about the kitchen. As I type, all of the doors belonging to the opposite side of upper cabinets are in the midst of being primed and painted, set to be back up and swinging next week. However, as I promised in the twins 19 week post, I do have a couple of little thrifty fun projects to share.
A few weeks ago, as I was browsing one of my fave local haunts - Goodwill - for some maternity sewing projects (of which I still haven't done one), I ran into this woven basket/tray:
By the looks of it, someone may have had some chill partays complete with some chips and dip in this little ditty but me, I saw it as a low-profile basket to house onions, potatoes, and bread (and anything else that gets stored on top of our fridge) in style. First though, the inner circle had to go. Lucky for me, it wasn't woven into the basket but merely wired on in three places (I made sure before buying it for $2). So, out came the needle-nose pliers and off came the circle.
Now it's filled and living on it's new perch:
It adds a little more texture to the kitchen, as small as it is, which is needed with all the white that will be. I also like how thin it is, allowing me to be able to open the cabinet doors above the fridge have I ever a need even though the glass vases up there would still need to be moved...which brings me to my second little project - those vases.
I was handed-down these preserved veggie vases right after we were married and since then, even though they're supposed to be made to look fresh forever, the veggies at the top of both were looking a little icky.
The other one had green and red peppers in it and actually looked worse. I emptied that one a year ago and it's just taken me this long to get to the other. :) So, to empty I simply plugged my nose (precautionary, especially while pregnant), turned on the water and waste disposal in the sink, and poured away. The carrots gave me a little bit of a hard time and I had to dig some of them out with a skewer, but after a few minutes I was left with this:
And this is where I say "to be continued". I'm not sure what the future holds for these guys but a few ideas I've got are a) filling them with coffee beans (spray painted first?), sand, or something else small enough to fill them, b) dumping paint in the inside to color them from the inside out, or c) turning them into lamps. Once I know, you'll know and see. Should be fun! First priority though is getting the rest of the kitchen donzo and then yanking out the sewing machine to create some increasingly needed maternity wear. :)
Have a great weekend everyone!
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