Small Improvements

Given the theme of this blog, and the fact that for about the first year all we did was various forms of construction projects, I shouldn't be surprised when people ask me what's up with the house at the moment. The short answer: very little. We're well into the "enjoy the house" phase, and are currently putting our money and time into other things.

However, occasionally we do small projects when we can see the opportunity to make a big improvement in a short time. A few weeks ago, the front porch light seemingly burned out. This coincided with my blowing a fuse during band practice, and so it could have been a fairly serious problem -- but when Chris hauled the fixture down and discovered that it was simply a shoddy fixture, it was time to go shopping for a new one. At the same time, I decided to replace the contractors' special sconces/lanterns around the back doors, too. Why not? I hate those things -- they work, but they're cheap and ugly, and I am way over cheap and ugly.

At the same time, we decided to take advantage of the lack of a front porch fixture to remedy a basic problem with it -- it's all white! Technically, I suppose that's fine, but being from the south a white porch ceiling is something of an abomination. The proper color is something called "haint blue" -- supposedly it wards off evil spirits if you happen to be from one of the cultures (they are numerous in the south) that believes in it. Personally, I'm not all that superstitious, but I like the way the blue reminds me of the sky, cools the space in the summer, and brings a little color in in the winter -- a major consideration in a place where winter is twice as long as it was down south.

So today Chris and I spent about 6 hours painting the ceiling blue. (Photo at left: pre-painting prep.) We did this on Sunday, because it's one of the few days where we can steal away a few hours and because the local construction nannies don't work on Sunday. I was lucky this morning to find a whole suite of matching lanterns at Lowe's -- they averaged about $40 a fixture. SCORE! (Incidentally, for those who like me are cheap, both Lowe's and Home Depot appear to be having sales on lighting at the moment.)

So, new photos forthcoming once I can manage to get them to upload (damn Flickr!). Not only does it make the house look a tad more southern, but it makes it look great.