Randy the Chandy

All of the lighting fixtures that I chose for the house came from one store or another. If you said to me, "love that light, where'd you get it?" I would be able to tell you exactly where ("Pottery Barn") and how much it cost ("originally $99 & 25% off"). Although, I am happy with all of my purchases that isn't a very exciting story. 

However, one of our light fixtures was a gift and it has a bit of a story to it.

Fun Fact:

Every time we visit H's parent's house his father, my FIL, tries to get us to take something (or a lot of things) from their basement AKA The Storage Hub. Sometimes we decline, other times we rummage around and take one or two items. For instance, the last time we visited The Hub, H ended up with two arms full of records. Yes, he is slowly migrating from preppy to hippie to hipster. It is a slight problem.  At least he is ahhh, well rounded?

Back when we were building the house I had asked my MIL if she had any chandeliers down in The Storage Hub. It's a little bit like asking, "What's in your bag Mary Poppins?". One coat rack and a hand mirror later and you're set. 

She walked me downstairs and pointed to a sealed box. H was anxious to head out, so we scooped it up and drove off, new treasure in tow. It wasn't until Mr. C asked me to rush over my light fixtures for the electrician to install that I finally un-boxed the chandelier. I don't know what I was expecting but, it wasn't exactly "me" nor did it mesh with this modern, city dwelling. It was also too small for the space it was about to be placed but, there was no time (or budget) to go out and find a new one. After all, we had an occupancy permit to obtain!

So, the too small, gold chandelier was hung. No one could deny it was just too teeny for our high vaulted ceilings and large upstairs landing. But, it would do for the time being.

It's a little dingy but, with a little sprucing up it would (will) be quite beautiful. I'd love it in a small bathroom with some new candle slips. 

Now, for the big rod iron twist, about a year ago my MIL went to Paris, as she does almost annually. It was there that she sent me a picture of this chandelier that she found for sale. 

It was hard to identify the size in the picture but, the structure and details were quite becoming. So, as a gift for our new home she purchased it and had it shipped to the good ol U.S. of A. (Note: this is a slowwwww, freight-liner kind of shipping.) So, out of my mind it went.

Long after H and I had moved in, my MIL called and said the French beauty had arrived. I originally thought it would work well in our dining room and would bring a nice casual, pub feel to the built in benches.

But, in person the French chandy is large. Way too large to hang above the dining room table. Plus, I had grown obsessively attached to this light fixture that had already claimed the space as home. 

I knew just where it had to go. 

Vuala!

Here are some pictures to show you the size differences. 

From below. 

 

From the stairs that access the RTD.

Now, we all know that size doesn't really matter (LIE! Sure it does.) but, the Devil is in the details & I love the details of this randy lil chandy: 

The scalloped bobeches. (Surely you know what a bobeche is.)

 

The green rod iron with shimmery gold highlights.

The leaf and floral design that mimic the beautiful outdoors. 

So there you have it. My little lighting story. Oh, and to the future owners of this little abode of ours... I am pretty sure Randy the Chandy is coming with us on our next adventure. #sorrynotsorry

Thank you MIL and FIL, we love our little (BIG) French treasure!

Growing Through Life

A few years ago, if you would have told me that my first house would be in this state, this city, I would have told you well... probably something not very nice. Even though my heart will always be in Jackson, Wyoming. I am trying not to be too crabby about it. 

Crabs are for eating, not for being. (or having but, thats another issue all together - ew!)

After 6 months of living in our house and 10 months after we started this project, we have finally been able to convert to our permanent loan. Just a few days ago we made our first true mortgage payment (at least in my mind as previously, we had been making payments to our construction loan). 

So, this bad boy, the property, the finished product, belongs to us. 

It may not look like much to some. Heck, it may look like a castle to others. What really matters is that H and I well, we like it a latte! 

What I Learned This Week

When life hands you lemons...

...do not do the "Master Cleanse".

Put them in your liquor drink instead.

For this delicious recipe check out Cookie Kate. 

Happy Friday Hon! 

Appraise The Work

As soon as the wires were up and our back yard didn't look like this anymore, our mortgage broker ordered the appraisal. 

The appraiser came and Mr. C was kind enough to escort him through the house. Our mortgage gall suggested that he be here instead of us in case the appraiser had any structural/rehab questions (& probably so I didn't say truthful crazy things like our foundation was made of diamonds and our paint laced with gold in hopes of persuasion in our favor). 

So, I did what I could. I cleaned the house and in hopes that the appraiser was a fan of 'merica, I hung up our flag. 

We ended up just over where we had hoped to be which is awesome and means maybe the flag worked. (Thanks again Mike & Sunshine for the house warming present!)

Next stop, the permanent loan closing. Hold on to your seats kids, I know this is getting almost too exciting to handle!

The Wire (s)

The wire saga has finally come to an end. You first read about it here. Then again here.

A brief recap: The wires that were hanging off of the side of our house had to be hooked up to one of the electric poles on either side of our house. Sounds simple enough but, this couldn't happen until our neighbors signed the waiver that said wires could cross the plane of their property.

Until the wires were taken care of the appraisal was pushed back and so was our ability to convert from a construction loan and into a permanent loan.

We needed the owners of two houses next to us to sign off on the waiver. The electrician failed to obtain the signatures during the (actual) construction phase so Mr. C asked that we get involved and be "neighborly". Unfortunately, the task wasn't as simple as knocking on the door and asking for a cup of sugar. Both houses are rented out so tracking down the owners was our first hurdle. (Thank goodness for the internet and a girlfriend who knows her way around it.) Getting the owners to return a phone call or respond to a letter was a whole other saga and physically obtaining the signatures was the worst. One out of three of the property owners was particularly awful to deal with. But, after I established contact and after Mr. C bribed each and every one of them (seriously! this is what our world has come to?!) we finally were free and clear to have the electrical company, BGE, come out and do the install. 

Here is an old picture of  what the wires looked like for the past 6 months. 

Now, the view looks a little more like this. 

Wait. Where'd the wires go? Confused? Yeah, well, apparently the wires were installed on the "wrong" (South) side of the house because the signatures that we received were from the neighbors on the North side. 

So BGE came, scoped the scene, said "nope", and left. The electrician had to come back to move the wires from one side of the house to the other. 

Another request that BGE made was to make provisions so they could get their 25ft ladder out the back of our house. With the tiny back patio and a fence something creative had to be done. So Mr. C cut out a gate in the (once solid) privacy fence.

The gate opens up into the neighbor's back patio. No need to ever open that thing again so we have since put locks on it. It's not exactly what we wanted but, hey, it got the job done. 

Not only did the wires near the roof have to be moved but so did the electrical box.

After this mess...

... was all cleaned up.

And moved over.

BGE was asked back out to the house and the wires (finally) were installed.

Three cheers now, HIP HIP HURRAY!

It is hard to believe that this seemingly simple task could've been so drawn out and frustrating. 

If I were to share any advise to fellow renovating, home owners, I would say to get going on projects that involve neighbors, city permits, electrical companies in the beginning of the renovation process, (& by get going, I mean full court press). You never know what kind of snags you may end up with along the way.

Never thought we'd be so happy to see some wires in the air.  

 

 After all, where else are the birds supposed to sit in Charm City?