Category Archives: electrical

My motto’s always been, when it’s right it’s right…*

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*Lyrics from the Ron Burgundy and the Channel 4 News Team’s rendition of Afternoon Delight. Feel free to oversaturate your love for Anchorman by watching this clip from them singing it in the movie, too. 

The living room, open to the dining room (and foyer), has handsome drum fixtures on the ceiling, but needs some fresher lights in the face space.

With our new thrift/antique side tables in the living room settling in nicely, and with new curtains beginning to give the space a more homey, lived-in feel (only took us 5 years to nail down a curtain choice), I thought it might be an appropriate time to examine the lighting scheme. As Brick said so eloquently in Anchorman, “I love lamp.” But, as Ron Burgundy questioned him, “Do you really love the lamp, or are you just saying that?” I, too, had a similar conversation with myself, and then with Jeff… did he really love our lamps? Because I certainly did not. Specifically in the living room where IKEA lamps reign supreme, where each lamp is merely a shade balanced on a spindly little tube of chrome (which can be beautiful, don’t get me wrong), and where the only lamp we have that has any mass is too tall (and therefore a tiny bit blinding while sitting) for the space. It’s not really working, and so I’m on the hunt for better choices.

Our sole sofa-side lamp sits just a bit too high causing a bit of a blinding spot on that side of the room.

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It feels like I’ve been here, I’ve been here forever…*

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*Lyrics from Phantogram’s You Are The Ocean off their album Eyelid Movies. I considered using the lyric “This song is about you, ’cause I can’t live without you” regarding Brad, since his work was so essential, but thought that the above sentiment was more accurate now. Not that I don’t think that I can live without Brad. I’m sure I can’t.

I can barely remember where I last left you. I mean, I think it was somewhere around painting the walls and floor delivery. Or something. Honestly, I had to look it up. Since then, so much has been done. Let’s see: the walls were patched and painted (last coats, minus touch ups if needed); the baseboards were completed (painted, patched, sanded, etc.); the dishwasher was installed; the sink faucet was swapped out; the (cheap-O, IKEA, it’ll do until we can really afford to tackle the kitchen) undercabinet lighting was installed; we installed the underlayment to prep for the flooring; and, some lights were swapped out (from 150watt flood lights to LED replacement kits). Also, Brad and Eric of Osgood Electric came by to add some closet lights, wire and install a fan/light in the bathroom, swap out some switches here and there, add some boxes for lighting in the stairway and the laundry area, and installed recessed lighting in the living room. Phew, again.

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Out with a whimper, it’s not a blaze of glory…*

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*Lyrics from MGMT’s Congratulations from their album Congratulations. Don’t ask me what the video means. I have no idea.

Summer has effortlessly shifted into fall, marking the official close to a season that was full of fire and energy, heat and flooding, plenty and too much plenty. Windows were unceremoniously closed, yet screens remain in place; sweaters were unearthed from the drawers, or backs of closets, yet summer clothing has not been put away yet; seasonal cooking has shifted from tomatoes, fresh herbs and all things raw to squashes, soups and an increased interest in baking. The tides have changed, without us really noticing, though we are certainly aware.

Way back when, in late spring (a full two seasons ago!), we met with Mr and Mrs K to discuss ideas for their new kitchen (at that point merely a hope). Meeting after meeting, month after month and we weren’t sure they were going to choose us. Or even start at all. Drawing after drawing, email after email and we finally arrived at a direction, picked a start date, and boldly attempted to renovate an entire kitchen and bathroom in a month. Well, that didn’t quite happen, but it very nearly did: the kitchen is finally done!

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Damn it feels good to be a gangsta’…*

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*Lyrics from the Geto Boys’ song of the same name. As (poorly) fake sung by fake Kermit here. As heard first in Office Space. Totally not safe for work, by the way. Maybe not safe for most. You’ve been warned.

Client renovation – days 18, 19, 20 (+ 20.5, aka Saturday)

By the third day of the cabinet install it was clear that my position as photographer/designer/jack-of-whatever-trade-you-need was going to be utilized in a new way: as a painter. I was already acting as a coffee fetcher (what else is new), lunch grabber, vacuumer, sweeper, holder of things that require extra hands, trash collector, and back acher. Well, that last part was my own contribution to myself. But, no matter how you sliced it, my camera was going to have to be put down for much of the week. Still, I managed to get some photos (don’t cry!), so you can still inspect the progress for yourself(ves).

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I bet the groove that you’re hearin’ is keeping you satisfied…*

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*Lyrics from 2 In A Room’s 1990 “hit” (can you say it was a hit if you had to hunt wikipedia for information on it?) Wiggle It (Just A Little Bit). This one’s for you, Dave Powell. This is what you get for mentioning off-hand old lyrics to a crappy song from our youth.

Day 8: Client kitchen renovation

My head is still spinning from how much work went on today. After a week of waiting for subcontractors and inspections (passed!), after many mostly quiet days spent twiddling thumbs (or leg jiggling, fingernail biting, pacing, etc.), today Team Carpentry made up for the lack of visible progress and then some. Working through sweaty, humid and dead of summer weather, the guys rolled their way through installing 3/4 of the new hardwood flooring and installing sheetrock on nearly every wall and ceiling. Let me put it another way: there are now floors and walls and ceilings where yesterday there were none. It’s a mighty impressive step toward making the space take shape, toward realizing the vision for the design, toward putting back together the bones of a formerly hard-working (and much missed by Mr & Mrs K) kitchen.

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Don’t let it kill you, baby, don’t let it get to you…*

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*Lyrics from Tom Petty And The Heartbreaker’s 1981 hit The Waiting (is the hardest part).

Client Renovation: end of Week 1 and days 6 & 7 (if you missed the beginning of this tale, read about it here and here.)

Yeah, that’s right, I went old-school with my song lyrics today. But that’s because it fit too well. This past week, or rather 5 days spread across two work weeks, has been about waiting, primarily. Waiting for phase 1 to be complete, waiting for plumbers to arrive (which they finally did, but not without breaking promises to show up at least 3 times), and waiting for the electrical to be completed (which happened in a timely manner, but over a couple of visits due to a nasty cold). Waiting IS the hardest part. Mostly.

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Open your mouth wide, the universal sigh…*

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*Lyrics from Radiohead’s song Bloom from their album The King of Limbs. I mean no disrespect by using the lyrics in this playful manner – the song, the album, both amazing. Worth every penny and every minute of listening. Every time.

There’s a light (shining at the Frankenstein place). There’s a ligh-hi-high-hi-high-hah-ha-hight (burning in the fireplace!). There’s a ligh-high-uh-hight in the darkness of everybody’s life. There’s also a light in my office now. So, woo-hoo!

Many moons ago I began compiling bits and pieces for my inevitable office transformation. Up until a few years ago I would have self-identified as a hair colorist who was struggling to find my place in the world. Now I’m not afraid to say I’m a budding artist and designer, and a student of interior design (albeit a former student). Before our kitchen renovation began I had a little tiny area of the kitchen that I referred to as my “hair studio.” Now I have a fully-fledged, proper office. With a portable drafting table, portfolio pieces, and countless implements for design and drawing. (Perhaps not countless, but who wants to count that sort of stuff?)

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I won’t forget, I swear…*

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I am sad to report the passing of my beloved baby dog, Bec.

My beloveds.

May was a rough month. She was diagnosed with lung cancer on the first of May, and by May 30th she was gone (hence the blog absence). We are devastated by her loss, and are still adjusting to the new reality. We’re still coping, and trying to put our life into an order that has never existed. Until now I’d never known my husband without Bec – they were a package deal when we first started dating. It’s strange for both of us to have the whole house to ourselves… there’s no one to bark at the mailman, there’s no one to try to eat our dinner, or to get startled by the loudness of sound effects in movies, no one to get scared by the thunder and lightening, no one to greet us when we come home, and no one to curl up at the foot of the bed at night. We miss her dearly, and are doing our best to be grateful for our time with her, and to remember her in her healthiest days, rather than how sick she had become.

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They make it so hard on us baby, it’s so hard on us baby…*

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Over a week since my last post and not much more has happened in the family bath. Well, except for Brad getting our ceiling fan wired in, installing a light in our new closet (now I have to finish that paint job, too), finishing up the wiring of the floor mat and fixing a sensitive circuit breaker in the basement. I guess that’s a lot, but not very photogenic. We’re still waiting for J.J. to come back (hopefully by week’s end). So we wait some more.

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And we wait for something beauuuuutiful…*

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Each year, in January, stores have their annual “white sales” where they discount sheets and bedding, towels and bath items to make room for… something. Anyway, amid the sea of white that we have been surrounded by in one of the snowiest Januarys we’ve had in a long, long time, I, too, participated in the deals of the white sale. Discounted shams and a duvet cover for the soon-to-be-redesigned guest room (the purple room), a lightweight blanket and towels (from The Company Store), and just yesterday, a new lightweight quilt-type blanket from Target at 50% off (locals take note: Holyoke store has bunches of clearance bedding, FYI). So, white was the order of the month, by me and by Mother Nature. But it didn’t end there.

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