Library light fixture. Finally, right?

Yep, bought some jewelry for the house.  Treated myself, Mike and I, the house to a little gift.

I mentioned a couple of times the light fixture I had chosen for the library.  It was one of those moments when you see the perfect thing and suddenly there's a glorious glow about the world, you hear angels sing, the clouds part and sunshine reigns upon you.  Ok ok, it wasn't that extreme but it was pretty darn close.

Since Menards was having their 11% merchandise credit rebate on everything in the store thing going on again, I figured this past Saturday was as good a time as any to get the fixture.  Especially since I had woken up earlier than I had intended and was well on my way to completing the five thousand loads of laundry that needed doing plus the other reduced-to-Saturday-only tasks at hand.

By the time I finally decided to go get the darn fixture, I had just enough time to get it wired and hung before heading out to meet Mike for a night out of town, away from home, out of the house.

I have to admit, my friends, I totally fell for the display the store set up too.  Usually I'm good at resisting such temptations, not wow'ed or lulled by store staging.  But.  This time they got me.

They put one of those old time-y vintage-esque filament bulbs in the display fixture.  Normally I'm not much for those bulbs as they're so overused lately, everywhere, and stuck incongruously into any whatever fixture.  (Yes, I am a trend-avoider, for a lot of reasons.  Mainly, trends:  they come, they go.)  What's an extra $8, I thought, for a fixture we won't turn on all that often?  I'll even get eighty eight cents in store credit!  Heh.  My brain, right?!

So there it is.  The Stella Maris light fixture and the retro bulb.  Or lamp, sorry theater friends.  Oh crap, the bulb (lamp) is on sale now.  Grrrr!  You bet I'm buying another one and returning it with the first receipt!  Yes, I do that.  $2 outweighs eighty eight cents.

Previously, I wrote about changing out two light fixtures around the house.  Oh, and the dining room fixture earlier this year.  Basic wiring is a good skill to have in the ol' back pocket, and there are videos, tutorials, etc. galore smattered all over the interwebs.  Start small though.  Electricity is dangerous.  Better to hire an electrician and be safe than sorry, ok?  I'm even copying and posting my previous disclaimer to the bottom.

Getting the old fixture down was cake.  I didn't take a picture of it.  It was ugly and sad and cheap.  Nothing you want to see.  No matter how old or how new a house might be, old or new the wiring is, it's always a surprise when you get the old fixture off, see what's inside the junction box.  Or at least that's what I've found to be true, even in this house as every junction box is different.  Though please, this house?, not much surprises me anymore.  This time it was surprisingly tidy:  only one white wire and one yellow.

I've never put up a fixture on a chain before, so I was constantly battling with it slumping down.  Plus, even though there's all that spiffy insulation in our ceiling now, it was still warm up there as of course, ya know, heat rises, making me sweaty and irritable.  So, it took a little longer than I anticipated but it's up, it's in, it works and it's cool.

I'll need to play with/adjust the length I'm sure.  Or, who knows, maybe once I get a chair in there with a small rug, maybe a side table, art or mirrors on the wall adjacent to the light or maybe nothing at all, it might be interesting to leave the fixture hanging completely down like this.

Super low, huh?  We'll see.

But now I am thinking dimmer switch.  I should research and make sure this bulb is dimmable first though.

Texture.  Shine.  Pattern.  Nature type stuff.  70's vibe.  Goes great with the black paint, the pallet wood vertical blinds, the books, the gold shelf tracks.  The perfect little light for our fancy schmancy library.  And I love it.

I will say though, we're having a tough time being at home, the one place we always always wanted to be all the time, the place I'm trying to fix up and make so nice.  Today marks two days shy of a month since we lost our sweet pea Hailey so suddenly.  I cry every day.  Every day.  I'm milliseconds away from tears at every given point, every minute of the day.  Each day is a struggle for both of us.  The routines, the patterns, turning around and being reminded by every single little thing, seeing pictures, not being able to look at pictures....It's been the longest, toughest, worst month of my not-all-that-short life as reality is burrowing its cold, evil clawed grip in.  Thankfully Mike and I have each other and stores continue to stock tissues.

So um, yeah.  We were recently talking about going solar as apparently there's this convergence of programs going on here in Chicago, but credits are not turning out to be tangible rebates nor guaranteed, so we may take a pass.  It would be fantastic, but we won't be staying long enough to balance out.  Well, I dunno.  We haven't completely decided yet nor talked about it recently.  It's a hefty monetary outlay that's not accounted for, especially if things aren't true rebates.  That's problematic; numbers aren't explained until you push them to give bottom dollar info, the total cost to finance keeps rising, and we feel a tad misled.  Which is too bad because going green is good.

*Disclaimer:  Electricity is dangerous.  It can hurt you.  It can kill you even.  Bad wiring can burn your house down.  It's best to hire a qualified electrician if you don't know how to wire things.  But, if you are determined to learn, more power to you (ah, silly pun!).  There are lots of books and videos that will help you.  Start small with a little lamp kit.  Do not blow your house up.