Masterpiece

Yes! We are continuing the series of past home-improvements since we didn't have any in January to speak of... and I don't know when we'll have any again since we are totally into our horses and trail riding takes up most weekends.
Here's the master bedroom. Long, long time ago I can still remember when ... there used to be six layers of wall paper on the walls, spanning the decades from about 1920 and on. And there was a big gaping hole that someone once used as a fire place... and there were brown shelves up 10 feet high that went all the way around the room. High enough to catch dust but not low enough to put anything on. Oh, yes. And there were sail boats sailing their merry little way at the top of the walls. Come sail away, oh come sail away... STOP THE INSANITY!
Ahhhh........ peaceful green. Much better. Welcome to our bedroom.

As historically minded as I can be SOMETIMES, I did concede to my husband and allow a ceiling fan. I mean, we are in the south. Air circulation in the Summer is a must! We did go for one that had a slightly older feel to it, though. We also re-installed picture rail in the room, as you can see. There were over 1,000 holes in the original plaster walls and after many hours of patching and repairing there will NEVER be another hole put in these walls again. We will use the picture rail, which is what it is there for.

Can't see this very well, but it was a postcard I found in between the wall and the fireplace brick. it is of a woman holding flowers. The card is simply addressed with a name, neighborhood name and the state - no address needed, so it was probably sent to one of the original owners.

Though it may look green, the bedspread is more of a blue. I like the look of quilted spreads and quilts in old houses.

Sorry about the cat licking his nether regions in the picture. I'm used to seeing this, having four animals in the house so I don't notice it quite as much. Anyway, our bed faces this wall. My dear BIL gave us this old mantle as a double birthday present. It just makes the whole room, if you know what I mean. We hope to one day put gas logs in the fireplace since it used to be coal burning. Oh, and since there are no longer any chimneys in the house.

I love the light that comes through the lace curtains and the huge windows. Old houses are built so well to let in light. I don't even have to turn on any lights during the day in the house. We chose roller shades as opposed to blinds because they were SO much cheaper and they can easily cut them to fit the windows - no custom ordering. Believe it or not, when they are pulled down the room is DARK. Great for sleeping-in.

So that's the master. I can't find my old pictures of it anywhere, and I may have not taken any since it was so horrific for so long. There is, however, a post on this blog somewhere that shows it about halfway done.

BONUS POINTS: I made reference to at least three songs in this post. Can you name them?!

We real cool... We skip school...

AND if you can finish that poem, you get 50, yes 50 points!!!! So far, Nick (a man who believes in buying in bulk) is leading in points with 10 total.

So, back to the blog. I was going to title today's entry as Schoolhouse Rocks or Too Cool for School but everyone uses those. It's just not creative (or crazy) enough for me. As a friend in high school once yelled at me in an angry lack of understanding, "M'elle, WHY WHY do you always have to be SO DIFFERENT from everyone else?!!! Can't you just be normal?!!"

No. Sorry. It's not my thing. I think she was just PMS-ing that day anyway.

Anyway, really now, back to the blog.

Perhaps my light fixtures would have behaved like the poem above, or perhaps they actually did skip school. You see, these are what are commonly called "school house" style globes with the fixtures. They are more utilitarian and were commonly found in schools (no, really?!), courthouses and other public buildings. They are a little more 1920's than 1910's, but hey, we are going to have appliances in our kitchen. That's not very 1910's either.

These fixtures were found in my dear in-laws store in Pike county. My husband said he remembered something like this in the basement of the store, so he went a-hunting and here we are! I was elated when he brought them to me. I couldn't have bought better ones!

The larger of the two was as black as black could be on the metal part. After an hour with some Brasso and elbow grease, it looks as it does now - copper! Some of the brass started to show through, so I had to stop scrubbing, but I like the aged look it has. The smaller of the two would probably polish up similarly, but the fitter ring is completely rusted and it needs rewiring (they both probably do, but the wiring on this one is broken), so I have put off scrubbing it until I decide to search for another fixture to go with the globe or take it to the "light man" at the antique mall to see what can be done.

The largest fixture will go in the middle of the kitchen. White globes of this shape and size were good for diffusing light evenly over a room (and they had to deal with those carbon filament bulbs), so this is why they were used in places like school houses and public buildings where efficiency was sought. They are "green" or "energy star efficient" by today's standards, I suppose. The little fixture will go in the laundry room where a fluorescent fixture glares down from a plaster ceiling. So, maybe going from the fluorescent to this fixture isn't as green as I thought, but I can put one of those curly bulbs in it to make up for that.

See, that got kinda wordy and boring. But hey, you learned something new today I bet!

On a side note, I am looking for a place or website that might have old or reproduction finials and metal decor for light fixtures such as this. I know all about rejuvenation.com, which is fabulous in helping to guide one in what fixtures would best represent a remuddled old house, but they don't have finials for sale, that I can tell.