Country Livin’ Blog

I’d never given much thought to lighting before we set out for the lighting store. I knew that the house was going to have a lot of recessed lighting because the electrician was already hard at work. All of the houses I’d lived in up to this point had been built by someone else and I may or may not have liked a particular fixture, but I suppose I just never gave the nuances of lighting much thought. Well that was all about to change. First let me say that the living room in our new home was going to be unique. The ceiling in this room is vaulted like a church ceiling. It’s very pretty and it makes the room feel much bigger than it actually is. At its highest point it is fourteen feet high. As my husband says, it’s a beautiful room of wasted space. As the house was being built the electrician said to me that we really should consider a really spectacular fixture for the room. I didn’t know what that would be so I asked him what he thought it should be. He said, “Get yourself a crystal chandelier and I’ll put it up.”

So began the first of at least three trips to the lighting store. I thought there would be no way I could afford a crystal chandelier for any room of the house so I didn’t even consider it. Well, I thought about it and even looked at them in the lighting store, but put it out of my mind because, let’s face it, they’re expensive! But I kept going back. I didn’t think I liked the light I had originally picked out for the dining room and I went back and changed it. That was a good move. I like the dining room chandelier. I went back and changed the light we chose for over the kitchen island too. They had written down “standard florescent” and I knew that I didn’t want the standard light. The ceiling fans that the lighting store had weren’t the nicest ceiling fans I’d ever seen. I know that they have really gone out of vogue, but let’s face it folks I live in Alabama and you just can’t live here without the ceiling fans. We use them so much more then you could possibly imagine. We ended up buying them at Lowe’s instead of the lighting store because the ones at Lowe’s were prettier and less expensive. We had remote controls put on the one in the family room and the one in our master bedroom so they are easy to use.

Now, we are in the lighting store, and what are you doing when you are in a lighting store? You’re looking up. Almost all of the fixtures are hanging from the ceiling. I was walking along, looking up, when my feet came into contact with something on the floor and they stopped, but my body kept going. I was sprawled out on the floor in a heartbeat. My husband couldn’t catch me because he was on crutches. Folks, it took me right out of my shoes! I was so embarrassed! I wasn’t injured, except for my pride, but I could have been. It was the most cluttered store in the state of Alabama.

I wasn’t able to stop looking at the crystal chandeliers. I knew the room was going to be very pretty and I knew I didn’t want a ceiling fan in that room. The girl at the store kept asking what type of lighting was going to be in that room. I’m sure she was out of high school, but to me she looked about 16. She was very young and very unsure of herself. She didn’t offer a great deal of advice, but she did know what was available in the color and style we were picking out. That is about all I can say for her. We took back and purchased more items from the lighting store than any other vendor we worked with.

I did eventually purchase a crystal chandelier. I just couldn’t help it. They are so pretty and the room is so pretty that I needed a crystal chandelier. There was no getting away from it. My husband had to finally submit to the extra money so I could have a jewel for the beautiful room of wasted space. And I only went over budget by $764.40.

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