We’re pretty close to having replaced every light fixture in the house. Makes a big difference. It’s a small house but it’s kind of a big space, and the dark wood and paneling make it tricky to illuminate. Not that the paneling is going to live much longer. We’re either going to paint it or put up drywall, but the paneling has to go. In many cases, the new light fixtures just make it look worse.
The laundry room got a pretty dramatic change. The Jimmy Carter era florescents were removed and replaced with nice halogen track lights. Seriously, we found a price tag on one of the florescent bulbs and it said $1.95; I think they sell now for about $12 at our hardware store. The new lights aren’t as bright, but it’s so much nicer in there without that crappy, dingy contraption of cracked plastic and jagged sheet metal. I thought about keeping the florescent lights for the shed or something but I just couldn’t stand looking at it for a minute longer. As of today, it’s in a pile at the solid waste landfill.
That ceiling fan… it was a bitch. It’s about 17 feet off the floor and the only ladder I have for that height is rated at 200 pounds. Okay, I weigh a solid 220 and the fan weighs 50 so both of us on it made it more than a little wobbly. Yes, I had to disconnect the existing fan and carry it down the ladder, then carry the new fan up the ladder and connect it. I gotta say, though, ceiling fan technology has come a long way. They make those things as convenient as humanly possible. They even think to include a spare bolt because they know, just know, that when you’re 17 feet off the ground it’s very possible you will drop a bolt and it’ll be nice to have a spare one in your fanny pack.
The new fan looks great. It’s dead silent, but for some reason Inky is terrified of it. She knows when we turn it on. Her ears fold back and she peeps a little meow. Sometimes she hides under the bed. I’m not kidding. It’s like she hears some alien mind control waves that humans can’t detect. She’s gotten better about it now that it’s been up for a while.
We even got a new lizard. Cool, huh?