Back in August of 2009, we took the plunge and bought a house. Since we’re both fairly ambitious people who seem to welcome challenges (even when we probably shouldn’t), we decided to buy a beautiful 1905 house that required a good deal of work. Most of the work has just been cosmetic, but some of it intensely so. For example, the day we closed on the house, Michael began the painstaking process of replacing hideous 1970s-era green carpeting with hardwood floors.
We also did an intense amount of painting (turning the blue ceiling of the kitchen into a nice, white one that brightened the whole place), cleaning (scrubbing nicotine stains from windows and fixtures), and purchasing (a new office means a new desk) over that first month, getting the place ready for move-in. Finally, midway through August, things were done enough that we could live in our house, but we knew there was more to be done.
That being said, we created two Achievements this year: re-doing the ground floor lights, and doing one house project per month. For January, these two tie in quite nicely together, so this will count for both (although I can only title with one, I am labeling with both).
Michael surprised me while I was at work with a new kitchen light!
This was the old kitchen light, a photo taken halfway through my intense painting project. (See the blue on the walls? That was once on the ceiling as well.) This light is actually in better shape than it was when we moved in, as I scrubbed and scrubbed it and painted the area around it white to try to reflect light better, but it still cast a very dim light around the kitchen. Hard to wake up in the morning when you’re making breakfast in the dark!
The new kitchen light, from Home Depot. Soooo much brighter, and energy efficient bulbs on top of it!