Lighitng!!

Saturday was an amazing adventure! Alison, our interior designer, came into town. I think she'll be among the best money we spend on this adventure. She helped us pick out lighting for the whole house (see below) , a siding (and gutter and soffit and downspout) color (a medium gray), and helped us out with the granddaddy of decisions - the kitchen countertop (maybe black or black and brown). We even started talking paint colors for the whooooole house (again, see below).

A selection of the lighting choices are featured below, in no particular order (click on the picture to see the larger version and read the text). The flushmount is pretty boring, but hey, you need lights in the hallways and closets. The most exciting (to me, at least) is the exterior lighting. We saw a few that we liked but didn't love, and then it was like heaven opened up and shone a light on this one. And THEN it turned out to be one of the less expensive options. It's great.




Like I said, that was the most exciting part. We also got approval on our previous kitchen selections (which will go a long way to keeping me from second-guessing myself) and talked paint colors. I'm a dork, so I made an image with the paint colors we talked about. Nobody's rushing out to buy paint or anything, so this all could change, but I do like it overall, especially looking at them all together. It's not like we have one room that really sticks out like a sore thumb (I don't think).


As far as construction progress goes, there is waterproofing material on the outsides of the basement walls. It's ugly, but it's there. And the ugly part is getting covered with dirt, so it's all good.

OH! I almost forgot. We're at strike two on the ceiling fan for the master bedroom. The one I posted about earlier looked even more questionable after our visit to the lighting store; it's definitely out. We picked another one at the lighting store. I was unsure about it at the time, and it got worse after I slept on it. Strike two.

In browsing the web this evening, though, we may have found a winner! It's Hunter's "Palermo" ceiling fan. I am really digging it; the downside seems to be that it uses a compact fluorescent bulb, which some customer reviews describe as "harsh." (Not exactly ideal for a cozy master bedroom.) Maybe it would be better for the breakfast area and we can move the one we picked for that into the master bedroom.

And THAT, my friends, is all she wrote. For tonight, at least. Phew.