I can see the light

This past Saturday started out pretty bad. The hubby and I had planned all week to lay by the pool Saturday sipping cocktails {ok, beer for him I'm sure} and reading silly magazines all day.

We woke up to rain and gray skies.
So sad.

We decided to get up and go to Cracker Barrel to eat to jump start the day. We are both the same and could lay around all day, but knew we didn't want to waste a rare Saturday we had with nothing planned. So after we enjoyed a yummy vacation-ish breakfast {who really goes to eat there unless you're on vacation?!?} we went over to Hobby Lobby {YES I got him to go saying I knew exactly what I wanted to get and he could time me ~ too bad it was only items to make some more UK wreaths} and then went over to Lowe's. We walked around Lowe's for forever it seemed like thinking about things to do to our home.

We are very lucky to have gotten to build our first home. We've basically picked out everything we wanted in our price range and I think did a good job upgrading items where we knew it would really make a dramatic difference. It was also so good for us to make all the decisions together and it was pretty intense. Going from which wall color will match the stone to the woodwork to the crown molding the carpet, the counter tops, the tile, the floor, etc. SH000 WEE!!!
However; with that said, there are some things we knew we wanted but were told it would be a lot cheaper to just do ourselves instead of paying Ball Homes at the time of contract{mainly lighting}.

As I've expressed to you before, B is not your typical handy-man. He didn't grow up helping his Dad on big projects, and he doesn't spend his free time building things, but he HAS become quite the little handy-man of our home. He's learned to put up 2 ceiling fans in practically the dark, paint a large room and bathroom, and so on. This weekend, he learned to install a light and caulk/cover the remnants from the old light. I'm so proud!

Like I said, we assessed what we wanted to change, and it was basically the lighting in the kitchen as the number one choice. By the time the lighting meeting was happening last fall, we were so tired/consumed/overwhelmed/over-it with all the decisions we were making, we decided to skip the lighting meeting and just said we'd take all the standard lighting for everything. Probably a mistake, but overall the lighting we have is great and we didn't need to upgrade on anything else!
EXCEPT the kitchen light. It's a large fluorescent light. Riiiight. You know what I'm talking about. It's about the length of the kitchen, has not one but 2 long tube lights, and is overall non-attractive! It does give off a lot of light ~ I'll give it that.

SO, we took the rest of the 'house money' we had from the wedding, and bought ourselves a very nice looking light. It's AWESOME! After a few under-the-breath cuss words and 2 different times putting it in he ceiling {hey, it might as well be right, right?!} my handy-man hubs put this awesome looking light in. See for yourself! Hope you like. And yes, it give off just as much if not more light.:)




I think I'll stick to the decorating thing ~ it's much more fun than doing big changes!

Wish I had real before and after pics, but in true Burton fashion, we got an idea in our heads and made it happen fast!