This was supposed to be a dumb post about kitchen window treatments, but how else do these things start?

I put way too much thought into what would look good hanging from our kitchen window. Valances were always too long, shades blocked out too much light, and I despise cafe curtains. Finally, I took everything down to see how the window would look bare. I put a fresh coat of white paint on the trim. It looked lovely. What I noticed while I was standing on a chair… not so lovely.

The ceiling fixture was hanging down, and I couldn’t believe how loose it was. I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal to replace it, so I found a mini pendant on sale. Once I took the old light down, I saw that the ceiling was blackened above it. The insulation inside was black. The wiring was a mess, too. Not good, especially when you consider that we leave this light on every night when we go to bed. Still, no big deal, I could fix this… And then the screw holes disintegrated right in my fingertips and broke off the ceiling box. What. The. Eff.

I went up to the attic. That box might as well have been on the moon. I was starting to weigh my options when Micah declared I’d probably electrocute myself if we didn’t just get a handyman for this one. I didn’t want to give in, but we found a reasonable “no job’s too small” electrician in the Pennysaver.

We thought of a few other things while he was here. Our inspector had recommended that we add another GFCI outlet in the kitchen because we only had one in the house. Done. I asked him to figure out why the wiring was bad behind the range hood. Zap. For the first time in probably thirty years, this house has a working range hood. Amazing. Lastly, we asked if he could install electrical outlets in two of the bathrooms. We have one in the master bath, but none in the others. That always seemed kind of weird. He will be back to do that tomorrow. I’m all excited about having night lights and plug-in air fresheners. I think I need a new hobby.

Bare-naked window:

With new pendant:

I’m still dreading the yard work. We are going to hang the last two doors over the weekend, then stop for about five minutes…