Lighting: Take 1-2-3

Do you have a hard time choosing lighting for your home? I do. Almost every room in our house needs to have the lighting replaced, but when I wander through the stores I can't find a thing I like. Or it's more than I'm willing to pay. And then when I do finally pick something out, there's a good chance I'll change my mind about it in a few months.

Take our basement bar for example. You could start with the fact that I wish we didn't have a bar, but tearing it out and re-carpeting the entire basement is not in the plans. There are three pendant lights that hang down over the bar, and from the day we moved in we've had problems with them.

(Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is the only photo I have of them. That is not my bubble gum machine - nor my book on the Lotus.)

The middle light kept burning out. After replacing the bulb over and over, Tom discovered that there was a bad connection where the socket meets the bulb. He searched but he couldn't find a replacement socket for it.

So the hunt for new ones began. Neither of us could agree on a style, until we happened upon these ones by accident while shopping for something else at Rona (the Canadian version of Home Depot).

We both kind of liked them. And they were pretty inexpensive. So we brought them home and installed them right away. You can extend them to about 3 feet, but because our basement ceiling is pretty low we kept them short: the shades were larger than the previous ones and no one wants a big light in their face.

But it wasn't to be. I knew right away that they were wrong. Again there was just that "something". I'm starting to think it was the brushed nickel finish. It was too sterile. The wood of the bar and the stair rail is a warm cherry shade and metal just didn't go.

I was despairing that we would ever find something nice. Then I found the ones. These cut-glass mosaic style pendants were hanging out at Home Depot. Just minding their own business. The reddish tone coordinated perfectly with the bar, and the finish was black instead of nickel.

We hung them this past weekend and I'm in love. We ended up hanging them lower than the last ones - they look so much better that way. The description says the glass is brown, but when they're lit up the colour is definitely red. The wires still have a little kink to them, but they should straighten out with time.

Pretty, right? They give the room a warm, cozy feeling - kind of like a neighbourhood pub would have. If your neighbourhood pub had empty wine bottles and a box of Kleenex. Sounds about right, actually.

So sometimes you just have to keep trying until you find the right fit. Because once you do, you just know it.

Anyone want to buy some barely used brushed nickel pendant lights? 

I have several to choose from!

Refinished Deck Furniture

Now with the deck cleaned, we could get our outdoor furniture back out there. Yes, back out there. Over the summer I have been slowly stripping the wood, then staining and sealing it. I did all of the sanding on the deck, but once each piece was stripped I took it to the garage for refinishing. So the deck has been a bit empty for the last two months.

The furniture came in a honey/reddish tone with beige seat cushions.  Kind of bland and vanilla, but it did look nice when it was dressed up with pillows and throws.

That served us well for a couple of years, but the elements took their toll on the finish and it was starting to peel. The wood that was no longer sealed started to weather in an uneven way, so that we had grey patches mixed with the original honey colour. And a bit of mildew.

I booked a couple of vacation days and got to work removing all of the stain and whatnot. Lucky for me it ended up being two gorgeous days in the high twenties (Celsius) where I could work on my tan while I sanded the heck out of that furniture. I took each piece right down to raw wood. I even discovered that the top of the coffee table was cedar (as I tried unsuccessfully to remove the red tone. Duh!)

Here's my sleepy helper. She's not a fan of the noise. But she matches the Ridgid colours - new mascot perhaps?

Once everything was completely sanded and wiped down, I stained each piece with two coats of Minwax stain in Red Mahogany. Just gorgeous. If these pieces were inside my house I would have just waxed them to a soft glow and let them be, but because they had to withstand our ever-changing weather, I needed to apply polyurethane. Three coats just to be safe.

With all those slats there was a lot of drip-through to the other side. By the time I got to the second piece I'd learned it was best to apply a coat to the underside, flip it over while wet, and then wipe off the drips on the top side. Then when you apply the poly to the top, you can wipe the drips underneath, but if you miss a couple it's no big deal because no one will see them. That's my theory anyway. And if you're that person looking under my furniture: just stop it right now.

Also, you'll get a smoother finish if you sand between coats with the highest grit paper you have. Some people are lucky and don't need to, but working in our garage, which isn't pristine, there were always a few rough spots from dust and/or bubbles. But if you sand after the first and second coats, your third coat should be nice and smooth.

Along with the loveseat, chairs, and coffee table that came in a set, I also refinished the two side tables so that the entire area is cohesive. In fact, they are the same shade as the fold-down bar we made last year. How's that for tying things together? There is a method in my madness.

The contrast between the wood and the cushions is much more noticeable now. It stops those big squares and rectangles of beige from looking blah and invisible. I replaced the green and blue accents from before with brown and orange. Cute little lumbar pillows, right? And it all coordinates with the umbrella now, which was kind of the odd man out before.

I so dig the glossy look of the tables. And I'm not normally a fan of polyurethane - just check out my numerous other posts about waxing refinished furniture for proof. I watched the rain bead on the tabletop the other day and just smiled.

I set up the area with a little impromptu party - pickles, cheese, salami, etc. - and fizzy drinks of course. And then took a million artsy pictures of the glasses.

In fact, I took so long that the other three "people" living in the house decided to start the party without me.

 But they're so cute, how could I be mad?

Cheers!

Deck Cleaning (Algae is Not Your Friend)

Since summer is nearing its end, last weekend we thought we'd do a little deck maintenance. After rebuilding the deck last summer we haven't really looked after it properly, and with a rainy summer like the one we just had, some of the boards were looking a little stained. Especially in the corners. Yuck.

We took ourselves off to Lowe's and bought a bottle of Olympic deck cleaner because we'd heard that it is the one that works. It requires a separate sprayer, but the only one they had in stock was $40 and held 2 gallons. Way more than we needed or were willing to pay. So we just bought a little $10 garden sprayer instead. Problem solved.

We started by clearing everything off the deck and giving it a dry scrub with a hard bristled brush. You can see in the areas by the garden hose and under the chair that algae and mildew have turned the wood green. These are areas that rarely get direct sunlight, so it's tough to dry them out.

Before we started spraying the deck cleaner, we sprayed down the grass surrounding the deck with water to avoid damaging it. We sprayed on the cleaner (which I think is mostly just a strong bleach, though it is biodegradable) and waited for it 10 minutes as directed on the bottle. After giving the worst areas a second spray, we hosed it all down with water and left it to dry. You can see what an improvement it made even with it still a bit wet. Some of the boards still have a bit of a green tinge, but overall it looks so much cleaner! And it feels nicer underfoot.

It rained the next day so we're delayed on sealing it. In fact we haven't had nice enough weather since then (except when we're at work during the week, of course.)

How about a little side-by-side before and after? Quite a difference, isn't it?

We also bought a Big Boss X Hose that I'm sure you've seen on TV. The one that expands when you turn the water on and contracts back when you turn it off. This thing is so great! Look how tiny it is! (Don't worry, that grody little table is hitting the road - it's falling apart all over the place.)

Using the X Hose is so much easier than lugging the regular hose out over and over again. We water the grass every time the dogs pee in an effort to slow down the damage they're doing to the lawn, so the hose gets uncoiled many times a day. Now it just takes a minute or two. And the blue colour is kind of cute. I want to get another one for the front tap now.

Do you have one? What do you think of it?