Today scaffolding is gone
All window exteriors cleaned (3 guys x 4 hrs!!)
New backsplashes getting installed in kitchen
Casing around doors and doors/antique knobs geting installed. My carpenter is about to kill me because I am making him install the original hardware on the new doors and it requires a lot of careful cutting and routing
Holy cow, isn’t that like 30 minutes per window? What was caked on these windows?
IMHO all chandeliers should come with dimmer switches.
Absolutely. And electrical outlets with built in night lights in the bathrooms.
^^I disagree. I prefer on/off and a motion activated night lights in the bathroom. 
In any case, any person who can hold a screwdriver can install their own dimmer. Even LED bulbs are now dimmable.
Not all of them. And the dimmable ones don’t dim the same as incandescent ones, it’s kind of annoying actually. It’s the one thing about LEDs I don’t particularly like.
You need a fairly deep box to fix an LED dimmer, if the box isn’t deep enough then you need more than a screwdriver. 
I did not say all of them were dimmable, but the majority that are sold now are. Plus, the standard box is deep enough to house a suitable switch.
All of the bathrooms have occupancy sensors because they are required by code if you do not put in a native flourescent light (NO WAY!!!) or a native LED light. There are very few native LED bathroom lights and the ones out there are very expensive. So, we have motion sensors in all the bathrooms that turn the lights on automatically. The dang one in the Womens Only hall bathroom goes on every time we walk down the hall because the door is always open
I have dimmer switches on lliving room and dining room lights.
We made several decisions today. Agent stopped by with a friend who is a designer
We are going big with the baseboards. I set up a 5", 6" and 7 1/4" example and we all agreed that the large baseboards really were the best. That’s lucky, because I already purchased a ton of the 7 1/4" and we were going to have to cut every one down to the other sizes
Consensus is that the living room chandelier is the right scale for the living room. In the pictures it looks very small but it appears much larger in real life. However, we are not loving it. It’s coming down and I get to try to pack every piece of it back into the giant box and mail it back for a refund. It’ll probably be weeks before I get enough time to try to mail it back. Have to start all over finding something. We want something really large but probably more delicate, maybe with curved arms and candles. More ‘airy’ looking
You all are not going to like this… all three of us want a gorgeous bling chandelier in the kitchen. I will try to get one local and hold it up to see if I love it. My agent says if the buyer doesn’t like it then they can change it but it will add a lot of wow factor to the photos
Master bathroom tile design is a big hit. The antique looking floor tiles in the other bathrooms were a big hit.
Black doors in hallways look so much better in real life than they do in the photos. We have started installing the original crystal knob hardware on them and they are stunning. My carpenter had to spend hours today repurposing an original kitchen door with glass in the top to a pocket door with some antique hardware I bought at the architectural salvage place. He has to cut and gouge out the door to get the stuff to fit
I loaded a ton of photos to show angles of the ‘views’ between rooms. You definitely cannot see the kitchen chandelier until you actually walk into the kitchen.
Tons of new photos loaded
There’s about 36 windows and they had to spend time up on the scaffolding. Then they had to get on tall ladders (one guy holds bottom of ladder) for the west side kitchen and dining windows. They also spent hours cleaning all of the stucco debris from around the house after the scaffolding got removed. I can finally see the house!!
(Save the LR chandelier until you are sure you have a better one installed)
Good idea. Probably should just keep it up there until I can find something better
now that we can see how HIGH the ceiling is in the kitchen, I agree with having a WOW chandelier.One thing you should do before you order one is go to the house after sunset , now that it its dark early, and turn on all the kitchen lights, move around the kitchen to the various work areas, whcih are along the perimeter, and see if there are any dark, shadowed areas that arent illuminated by the spots. Some times with spots that are set at an angle, as some of the ones in the kitchen ceiling are, the coverage is not as good if the cook inadvertently blocks the light by standing between the work area and the light coming over her shoulder…
That will help you determine if you need to have a chandelier that has more candelpower, or one that just looks fabulous.
Good idea. I need to get into the kitchen at night and see how well (or not) it is lit
You might try putting some white duct tape over one side of the sensor, we did this with a hall light motion sensor and it worked well.
Here are some chandelier possibilities:
more delicate - but is it big enough? http://www.lampsplus.com/products/channing-9-light-wide-bronze-scroll-chandelier__y4547.html
bigger but is it too “olde worlde”? http://www.lampsplus.com/products/marco-29-inch-wide-9-light-bronze-metal-tiered-chandelier__8g387.html
kitchen (if you decide to do an island): http://www.lampsplus.com/products/feiss-declaration-40-and-one-half-inchw-forged-iron-island-pendant__7m867.html
more contemporary than the others: http://www.lampsplus.com/products/middletown-34-inch-wide-downton-bronze-6-light-chandelier__8k630.html
I like Franklin Iron Works: http://www.lampsplus.com/products/lyster-square-28-inch-wide-oil-rubbed-bronze-chandelier__y2256.html
Another from FIW: http://www.lampsplus.com/products/raymore-23-and-one-half-inch-wide-rustic-bronze-6-light-chandelier__8h743.html
From FIW & almost 3 ft. high: http://www.lampsplus.com/products/gwinnett-23-and-one-half-inch-wide-11-light-twisted-bronze-pendant-light__8g645.html
From FIW - if you need a lot of light: http://www.lampsplus.com/products/heritage-44-inch-wide-bronze-and-glass-chandelier__w6827.html
Because you mentioned bling: http://www.lampsplus.com/products/alexandria-26-inch-wide-bronze-pendant__4f355.html and http://www.lampsplus.com/products/franklin-iron-works-bell-cage-22-inch-high-metal-mini-chandelier__y2303.html (don’t recall if you want the living room & kitchen fixtures to have the same finish)
Sorry I got carried away. Happy shopping!
Thank you so much Silpat. I love several of those but I will need about 36" high. Need something really big so I have to pass on the ones that are smaller.
cb, boy I wish you were based in WA! We found an awesome place… It only needs your magic touch.
I think the light is fine as is.
Another thought. Because the ceiling is dark, any dark metal will blend into it, making the chandelier look smaller. IMO, to be visible, it needs to be almost white.
Just my opinion – even though you will not be able to see the kitchen lighting fixture from the living room – and vice versa – I think there should still be some continuity in style. Same metal / finish, maybe, and same general vibe. I personally feel that a rustic, neo-Spanish style fixture in the living roon and a blingy crystal fixture in the kitchen would be a bit disjointed.
A huge selling point of the house is the '20s/30s California Spanish style. But really, only the living roon has that intrinsic style built in. You’ve done a good job of building that vibe into the rest of the house, with the black doors, the faded pattern tiles, etc. The fixture in the kitchen could potentially be another place to signal that vibe. I’m not sure how it would work, but if you go for the round black wrought iron in the living room, how about a fixture in the stylized black iron lantern style in the kitchen? I don’t have specific suggestions because I’m still having a hard time visualizing the kitchen space.
The more convential, au courant choice would be a series of pendant lights, perhaps in a group of 3 or 5. There are some fixtures that build several pendants into a single fixture. Again, the faux Spanish style would help to extend the charming vibe of the living room to the rest of the house. Possibly. Like I said, it is hard to visualize.