Electrical Progress. And curtains (again).

After a grueling weekend, more electrical rewiring work has been accomplished! The living room outlets are finished, and the ceiling lights are on their way. We won't be seeing the electrician for 3 more weeks, so that gives me time track down cloth-covered lamp wire to rewire the two chandeliers before they go back up. We also have to find an outside porch light (leaning towards a hanging light, which seems a bit harder to find).

We also have to track down some brown modular cable/phone/ethernet jacks (going to put 4 jacks in each single-gang spot). I figure we may as well wire up the house since we're already having so much fun.

We'd like to get another floorlamp to match the old one we already have, which also needs rewiring (go figure!).

It's nice to see the progress; after the living room lights are done, there only remains the bedroom and bathroom!

I tried re-using the old cover plates, but the stuck out from the wall a bit, leaving a gap between the plate and the wall. So I got some antique bronze metal plates from the hardware store. Normally I wouldn't spend money on such a thing, but they do really look nice compared to shiny platic plain brown (our old plates had a ridged pattern but we didn't have enough since we installed so many new outlets).

Yesterday I went to Hancock Fabrics to get some fabric for a footstool (ratty secondhand store find that we're going to make match the new huge Mama's chair). I couldn't help but get some fabric for curtains, and a new curtain rod, and clips. I didn't think the wife would go for it, but she really loved it. The red wasn't working in our space. I could even leave the wall color alone at this point, too. I also picked up a 24x48" canvas using one of those Michael's 50% off coupons, so it only cost $10. That's going to go in the living room, in the huge expanse of blank over the TV. I also have to get cracking on starting what will end up being 4 18"-square paintings for the baby's room.

Close-up of the pattern. Groovy art nouveau!

Interior paint color advice?

We cannot agree on what to do with the living room and dining room. Right now they're both painted a light beige with a hint of yellow (that's what the prior owners painted the whole house in before selling it). Right now you can't tell the dining room is a dining room since at the moment it's the throw-everything-on-the-table room. And half the dining room serves as my office.

I was thinking of using red for one of the rooms. I like red. Maybe a brighter yellow, or chocolate for the other. But Mrs. B. isn't so keen on red, and isn't enthusiastic about painting the two rooms different colors since they're so visible to each other. I can see that. The blue rug in the living room is going to go (it was left here but it serves the function for now). And should the rooms be two different colors, what color to paint the underside of the arch in between?

I really like what these people did in their house, but I'm afraid it might look so great for them because they've got the fancy ceiling beams and other goodies that we don't have.

A little rant. I went to a few home improvement stores to check out paint swatches and pictures of interiors, and almost all the interior pics showed rooms with painted-over trimwork. A bit annoying for those that have unpainted trim, since the paint might look a lot different against wood rather than white trim.

I think I might write to Trading Spaces. One of the designers is actually from my little town, and my sister-in-law could use some designing in her house too. We'll see!