Updates... Lighting

Dining Room

The updating continues at our house.  I have always hated the light above our dining room table.  There was one time, 5 or 6 years ago, when it stopped working and I though 'I can finally get rid of this thing and Kirk will have to relent and agree to replace it'.  Not so. Robert, our electrician friend, was able to fix it.  Bummer. So, I've been stuck with this one ever since. I haven't been able to spend the money to replace it - there is always something more important in our budget.

The girls love this light.  In fact, when I went to replace it this week, they begged me to keep the old one.  No chance.  To console them, I boxed up the old light and promised to give it to whichever girl gets married first.  They excitedly agreed.  I wonder if they will be so excited about it when they open it on their wedding day??

Anyway... back to the updates.  While walking the lighting aisle at Home Depot, I came across this beauty (actually Kirk spotted it first).  It was on sale for a cheap $39 (down from $220).  Everyone must have noticed that lovely gold running down the center and overlooked it.  I only noticed the nice shape.  Over on the painting aisle, I picked up a can of Rust-Oleum oil rubbed bronze spray paint and Voila... a new light.  And all for under $50.

+ (plus)

= (equals)

Hallways

Before:
The original gold bubble light adorned our hallways and laundry room.

After:

I purchased these lights in a 2-pack for $31.47 (that's roughly $16 a piece) from Lowe's. 

I looked and looked, but couldn't find anything in the oil rubbed bronze finish I was looking for.  So, I used the rest of my oil rubbed bronze spray paint from my dining room light and VOILA...

Bathrooms

I am still wondering why we have lived in this house for 8 years with these bathroom vanity lights.  None of the girls asked for these on their wedding day.  I couldn't wait to pull them down and pack them away for Goodwill.



Thanks to a very handy husband, we now have these lovely lights in our bathrooms...

Birthday Money

Yesterday Kirk took Maren to the bike store. She has been saving her allowance and birthday money for several months to buy a new bike.  Now that the snow is leaving and warmer weather is coming, she is anxious to be outside.  Her old bike was a cheap hand-me-down with a loose wheel.  Last year she was discouraged trying to keep up with her sisters.  Now she won't have a problem...

Happy Pi Day!

Did you know that today, March 14th, is officially Pi day?  Get it... March 14th = 3.14.

In case you don't remember... π is a mathematical constant approximately equal to 3.14159265 (Hannah had to remind me of this bit of math information). 

You learn some really interesting things when you have a 5th grader. 

Spring Skiing

Yesterday was a rare and beautiful day of spring skiing.  We had blue skies, new snow and warmer temperatures.  I headed up to Schweitzer with the older girls while Izzy and Kirk stayed home.  Izzy claimed that 'I hate skiing'.  Which isn't true (she's usually the one most eager to go), but only proves that the terrible wonderful three's have begun in our house. 

It was such a nice day that I continued an old Johnson tradition.  We grabbed our lunch backpack and headed over the river and through the woods (actually up the T-bar) to eat lunch in the sunshine at the top of Recess.  When I was a kid this was a favorite thing to do with my family.  I remember many sack lunches eaten on top of Gentle Ben with my Dad, Mom and siblings. 

Here's some spring powder skiing from Maren & Hannah:

Paige is our speed skier and usually the first one down.

The girls can go just about anywhere on the mountain now, which is great and gives us lots of options for exploring.  The t-bar accesses a whole slope of black diamond runs which usually has some good stashes of powder.  We skied powder, crud and groomers. 

It was a fun day.

Updated

I am doing a little updating in our gold accented 1990's home.  It has some (ahem) lovely touches which I am not sad to loose. I started this weekend with doorknobs.  Before...

After...

Now, doesn't that look more 2011?  I love the way it brightenes up the white doors and trim.  Next... hall lights, bathroom lights, closet knobs and ceiling fans.  Goodbye gold, hello oil rubbed bronze!