Condo Blues: lights
Showing posts with label lights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lights. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

How to Make Decor Decisions without Arguing

To try to keep the costs down where we could, replacing the bathroom vanity lights was not in the plan. I don’t love them but I don’t completely hate them either. The plan was to try to repair the light with a socket that would not stay lit and if it can’t be fixed we replace the lights.

We need to replace the lights.

Which is fine by me because I hoped to update those Restore bargain lights in one way or another. (Actually the working light will get a little update and installed in another bathroom in our house.)

As much as I love the thrill of the hunt, my husband HATES shopping, comparison shopping in particular, with a white hot fiery passion but wants input because this is his house too. I learned early on in our relationship that the best way to satisfy both of the ways we like to work is to treat my husband as I would working with a client. I search to my heart’s desire. I present my top three (at most) selections to my husband and we make our decision together. If we can’t agree on the top three, I usually have others to chose from or I look for something that fits what we discussed.

Do I always get my number one choice? No. Does he? Also no. But more often than not, our favorite of the three is the same which makes it easy. (We also unknowingly do the same thing in restaurants.)

As a refresher, these are the bathroom vanity lights we need to replace.

condo bathroom remodel before
I sold the medicine cabinet, mirror, shower doors, counter top and faucets on Marketplace.
 

Here are our top three replacement vanity wall lights.

 

how to buy bathroom vanity lights

Drum roll

I installed the Quoizel Grant Vanity Bath Light (learn more about it here)! (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links for your convenience.)


how to make decisions without steamrolling

 Save this idea to your Pinterest boards for later! Share it with your friends!

 

This wall sconce is a combination of two of my favorite design styles: modern with an old world flair. I installed the sconces with the lights pointing down but if I want a new look later I can flip them to point up for a new zero dollar look.

This fixture does not include the light bulbs which is one of the things my husband and I like about it most. I bought these exact Edison light bulbs which really make these wall lights sing.

Looking for more bathroom decoration ideas? Check out the following options – and more!- Below!

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Monday, May 2, 2022

How to Install Electrical Boxes Without a Wall Stud

Every once and awhile someone asks me why I named this blog Condo Blues, when in reality, I actually like my house.

Oh gentle reader, I will say that after a steady diet of every DIY, home renovation, and decorating TV show imaginable my sweet, simple, naive self quickly found that some basic home projects are not as simple as they appear on TV once I bought a house. My most recent big, glaring smack in the face turned out not to be easy as I thought was replacing a set of bathroom vanity lights in an hour or two.

Because I found this hiding under the old vanity lights. 

how to put electric junction boxes in a wall

 Surprise! My one hour project will now take two days at the least!

 

There aren’t any electrical boxes installed in the wall for the wiring like there should be. I’m also pretty sure that is a crack in the fabric of space and time on the right. I better patch that before Weeping Angels, Daleks, and all sorts of bad things seep though and ruin the progress I’ve made on my bathroom renovation.

The most electrical boxes (especially when you need to hang a wall light off it) are installed by attaching the electrical box to a stud when the wall is being built. This is not the case with the wiring for my bathroom wall lights because the electricians ran the wiring in the center of the wall stud because of the plumbing for the sinks sharing that space in the framing. The builders could have installed a number of electrical boxes to work around this but apparently took the easy and possibly not building code complicate (based on a huge discussion on the Condo Blues Facebook page ) way out with bare wiring poking through a hole in the drywall.

Tsk. Tsk.

How to Install a Wall Sconce Electrical Box

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Yuletide Village Christmas Light Tour

Last summer I created and performed a new character at the Ohio Renaissance Festival- Nissa Tomtesdottir the gnome! I had so much fun sharing my Danish heritage and Scandinavian gnome/nisse/tomte lore through Nissa (with a giant helping of playing with patrons who came dressed as Wirt and Greg from Over the Garden Wall this season) that I had to celebrate Nissa's and my favorite time of the year - Christmas - at Yuletide Village Season of Lights!

 ohio renaissance festival Yultide Village

My favorite light display are the blanket of blue twinkle lights in the dry creek bed around the Y bridge.  Photo credit: Steve Kohus

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

How to Decorate a Small Patio for Fall

This post is sponsored by Enbrighten Café Lights by Jasco. All thoughts and opinions are my own #EnbrightenLights


I want to make our small patio more inviting for evening entertaining this fall.

Pin these Fall outdoor decorating ideas for later!

The planter box I built for Husband’s container kitchen garden adds a little privacy since our condo homeowners association will not allow us to install a fence.

And we get fresh herbs and peppers, yay!