Fun With an Extension Ladder: Side Project

You may recall that I found a pair of ornate ceiling lights at Second Chance Salvage in Baltimore a couple of months ago. I installed one in our downstairs entryway and have been saving the other for just the right spot.

After painting the walls and ceiling on the upstairs landing to coordinate with the entryway, I decided the lights should match as well. Besides, I had been meaning to deal with this airplane propellor attached to the ceiling since we moved in over a year ago:



The Ear came equipped with some truly awful fans and lighting fixtures. I'm glad to finally be getting rid of them. I started this one by removing the blades and the light kit (after cutting off the power at the circuit breaker!).



I was then able to lower the canopy, unscrew the bolts, and detach the wiring. As with the light fixture in the entryway, I found evidence of The Ear's former gas lighting system. This gas pipe (the dark cylinder in the middle of the silver plate), however, had been cut off closer to the ceiling, so it was not in the way of my new hardware.



After the fan removal, the new fixture went up easy as pie.



Wow, what a tall, airy space we have now!



I think I'll take a little break from projects for now and just enjoy living here for a bit. Happy summer!

Fun With an Extension Ladder: One Last Thing

Just before returning our friend Extension Ladder to his home at Frager's Hardware, we decided to complete one more project: hanging some art in the stairwell.

I've had this huge lovely work on paper, by my friend and fellow Arkie Kim Kwee, since finishing grad school in 2006. Now I finally have a perfect spot to hang it. After a great deal of measuring, stretching, and shifting back and forth, we got it hung up on the brick wall in the stairwell.





Three projects is a pretty good tally for one week with a rented extension ladder, don't you think?

Fun With an Extension Ladder: Painting the Landing, Finishing Up

On Wednesday I got the second coat of gray applied to the walls. Fresh and clean!

Up next: lighting.

Fun With an Extension Ladder: Painting the Landing

On Sunday we partially removed the satellite dish. On Monday, today (and finishing up tomorrow, with luck), I've been painting the landing at the top of our stairs. This is one of the last "easy" projects left in The Ear!

Setting up:





Ceiling done on Monday (Martha Stewart Glass of Milk, as usual):



First coat of wall paint done (Martha Stewart Driftwood Gray for continuity with the entryway below). As I did with the dining room, I'm keeping the wallpaper and just giving it a fresh coat of better-looking paint.