Picture of the Day: Statues in Buddhist Temple Cave

Marble Mountains
Da Nang, Vietnam
8.11.2012 

New Living Room Light

Living in an old house I have spent a lot of time while remodeling scouring around for antique items or reproduction items that I can use in my home. I want to give it back the feeling of an old home that the previous owners had stripped away in their 1960s remodeling.

One of the things I love are the fixtures at Rejuvenation. They have gorgeous reproductions based on antique lights. In particular I would love to hang their Orville Chandelier in my living room.

Unfortunately, since it is a chandelier the minimum height you can order it is 24" which is way too tall for the low ceilings in my old home. The bigger problem for me, however is that it comes with a $580 price tag which is out of my price range.

Using the Orville as my inspiration I searched around for something similar that was a semi-flush fixture in my price range. I came across a light fixture from Minka Lavery's 1730 Series on Lighting Direct.

The light was a semi-flush and hung down only 13-1/2" from the ceiling which was workable. The fixture had a classic style with three arms that I loved, but the glass shades looked pretty modern in the photos. The price was great at $139.90 plus Lighting Direct had an additional 10% off on Minka Lavery fixtures at the time making the light only $125.91. I decided to get it with the idea that if the shades did look too modern I could always switch them out.

After the fixture arrived Frank helped me hang it. I've hung several lights by myself, but holding the fixture with one hand while you are twisting on wire nuts with the other can be a tricky proposition so it is always easier to do with two people. The fixture looked great and I love how bright it made the living room with the three bulbs. My initial hunch that the shades were way too modern looking was correct, however. Here is the fixture hung in my living room.

I set about looking for some white bell shades with 2-1/4" fitters that looked similar to the Orville shades. I found some for $5.00 a piece with another 10% discount running at the time and decided to get them.

The shades arrived on Friday and I was excited to put them up on Saturday. They really make a difference and I love how the new light fixture looks now.

It's not too far off from my inspiration and I really love how it looks in the living room. Now if only I could figure out what to do with the entryway light...

Picture of the Day: St. Anthony's in Sorrento

Sorrento, Italy
3.22.3012 

New Tab: Living in Japan

One of the main reasons that I started this blog was so that I would document some of the stories of living in Japan for myself. My time there had a big effect on my life and I want to record things before I forget all the little details. I have so many things I want to write but haven't gotten around to, so I am setting a goal for myself to write 2-3 posts a month about those experiences.

I also took some time this weekend to make a "Living in Japan" tab for my blog. I made little thumbnails for each related post and have them organized into a few categories. It took me a while to set everything up and get it all linked but I think it is worth it. Hopefully this will make browsing through past posts a bit easier.

Picture of the Day: Traditional Female Pearl Diver

Mikimoto Pearl Island
Mie, Japan
4.2009 

Picture of the Day: Moon Rising Over the Beach in Lorne

Lorne, Victoria
Australia
12.28.2009 

Winter Doldrums

We were supposed to have an onslaught of snow last night but it turns out that we only got a few inches. That means that now I not only have to go to work (like a little kid, I was kind of hoping a for a snow day) but I have to clean off my car and driveway before I go. Worst of both worlds! I took the photo above right after the sun came up and it has been continuously snowing since then. I love living in Ann Arbor, but I hate shoveling.

I know I haven't been posting much lately. I've been feeling a little off since my incident in December so outside of work I haven't been up to doing a whole lot outside of sleeping and laying on super couch. It is so frustrating to me since I really enjoy being busy and working on the 1001 projects I always seem to have going on. Hopefully I will be better soon and back to feeling like myself. We did rebook our trip to Cartegena in March so I am very excited about that.

Well, it's time to brave the cold and head to work. I'm off to shovel snow!

Picture of the Day: Rooflines at Zhuo Zheng Yuan

Humble Administrator’s Garden
(Zhuo Zheng Yuan 拙政园)
Suzhou, China
2.2009 

Picture of the Day: Snow Covered Sand Dunes in Otaru

Otaru, Hokkaido
Japan
2.2009 

Shopping for a New Front Door

My house is in need of a new front door. The door that was on my house when I bought it was a wooden door with three small rectangular glass windows staggered like a set of stairs along the top. Appropriate for a house built in the 1960s? Sure. Appropriate for a house built in the late 1800s? Yeah, no. Here is a picture of of my house back in 2007 soon after I bought it with the old door on it. My poor house looked so scary then! I apologize for the crappy photo but it is all I have.

The old door was one of the first things to go after I bought my house. It was replaced by a beautiful salvaged door with lovely glass panes that I painted red. It is the right period for my house and I love how it looks however after living with it for a few years it has to go.

First, the door is not the sturdiest and I think it would be better suited to being an interior door. Second, it is a little small for my door frame and that combined with the large amount of glass makes it extremely terrible for losing heat in the winter.

So as much as I love the glass front door it is time to replace it. I dragged Frank along with me on my search since a door won't exactly fit in my tiny little car. We hit up the Ann Arbor ReStore first. It has donated building salvage that can be a hit or miss. I found my five panel doors for my upstairs closet there but this trip was a definite miss with very slim pickings for doors.

Next up was Materials Unlimited in Ypsilanti. This place is a beautiful architectural salvage store with amazing things. If I had an unlimited budget I would be buying up the place. On the first floor they have antique furniture with a ceiling dripping with salvaged lights they have restored.

On the second floor they have beautiful hardware like knobs and hinges in good condition in glass display cases.

The basement is my favorite place, though. They have a room of old salvaged hardware that is in a bit rough condition but fun to sift through.

I also love all of these salvaged balusters. Wouldn't it be fun to redo a staircase with them?

The basement is also where all of the salvaged doors are located. Frank and I started looking through them to find a good candidate.

All of the doors have tags telling you where they were salvaged, age if known and other cool details.

The first door that was a candidate was this beautiful Victorian eight panel door that was salvaged from Detroit Odd Fellows Hall from 1874. I really liked the design but since it was pine and a little thinner than I would like we decided to keep looking.

The final winner was this three panel door salvaged from Battle Creek, Michigan dating to 1912. The door is constructed from Birch and Oak and is super solid with lovely detail along the panel edges.

I am really excited about the new door and can't wait until the weather warms up a bit (my garage is freezing right now!) so I can work on refinishing it.