~My Never Ending Quest Continues~

Instead of tending to my blog, or my dear children for that matter, I spent a great deal of time last week continuing my never ending quest to make the living room a lighter, brighter place.

You know how some people are forever looking for "the perfect pair of jeans", but refuse to spend lots of money so they just keep buying cheap jeans only to buy another pair of jeans and never be satisfied. (If it's not jeans, it's a the paint color, the perfect little black dress, the perfect spatula, or maybe something else but you know what I mean, right?) Well, I'm hoping my living room is not that "pair of jeans".

You may ask "What is wrong with your living room?"

I will tell you. Though the windows are a good size, they face east and north and are covered by large tree limbs. As is the case with most 1950's homes, there is no ceiling light, only a light-switch leading to an outlet where you can plug in that 60 watt lamp-shade-covered bulb. On cloudy days this room is dark, dreary and depressing. As the leaves on the trees slowly begin to change color my mind flashes to the confining months ahead full of dreary, cloudy days and I shutter.

I know that the ultimate solution would be a nice big three bulb ceiling light in the middle of the room with a 52 inch fan to help circulate the air... but I don't want to pay the high price of an electrician, and go through the costly construction process.

You might be thinking "But you remodeled your entire kitchen by yourselves! Surely you can install a light fixture!"

To which I would reply, yes, we remodeled an entire kitchen ourselves except for the minimal electrical work, which we happily paid someone else to tackle.

Shortly after moving in we bought more lamps that you turn on individually by hand. As you may recall, I even convinced Nick to repaint the walls a lighter shade of brown last March. Still, I find myself feeling dark and enclosed on cloudy days, and yearning for more light.

Since moving to the land of endless summer is not a viable option, nor is moving to a south facing home (besides who would want to leave a brand new kitchen!) I continue my quest. All last week I spent my days washing and scrubbing my windows and storm windows inside and out. Three gallons of water, 3/4 cups of vinegar, a little dish soap, a squeegee, lots of elbow grease, an entire bottle of windex, and 2 rolls of paper towel later all the windows in my home were shining bright and clear. Pat on the back to me.

After spending all my free time on such a lofty time consuming project instead of getting caught up on this bloggity blog or playing superman off the toy-chest with my babies you may ask "Is the living room brighter?"

To which I would reply, Yes.

BUT not light or bright enough.

I think I may start searching for new drapes... maybe a new area rug?

So what is your "perfect pair of jeans"? We all have our quests, or issues... spill!