New lights - glorious new lights

Welcome to my first Metamorphosis Monday - hosted by Between Naps on the Porch. You can rush right over there and see what other wonderful changes bloggers are making in their homes and yard.

When Don was in the hospital, our son was out here visiting from West Virginia. He spent a lot of time at the hospital, plus he also drove me around so I wouldn't have to drive all the time, replaced lights in five rooms of our house, put a dimmer switch on the dining room chandelier, switched some crazy light switches in one bathroom, painted the kitchen (with help from his older sister), watched his nephews one day each (the whole day), bought me meals at the cafeteria many, many times, took his nephews to the cafeteria many, many times, went to Lowes and Home Depot any number of times, put up the whirlygig on the swingset so his dad could see it when he came home from the hospital, repaired, mended and fixed all sorts of things and the day he was leaving to go back to WV he said - I wish I'd had time to do more things around the house. We miss him terribly - not just for the things he does around the house - but just because he lives so far away and we don't get to visit often. He and Jamie are coming out for christmas this year - what a celebration we'll have - our whole family together for the holidays!!!!

The first project was to replace the ordinary (read, uggggly) lights in the bathrooms. . .

This one was so ugly I didn't even buy a replacement bulb when one of the bulbs blew out - I just left it empty and ugly. Do you see my hand holding the camera up to get a picture?

This was the fixture in the shower area of the master bath - ohhhh such bad taste . . .

And the guest bath - more plain and homely lights.

Over the kitchen sink- oh how my heart ached each time I had to look at these lights. And look at the wallpaper behind them - ohhhhhhhhhh just awful. The kitchen has white counters with pine green tile edging, and white/pine green flooring - and then this GAWD AWFUL pastel print wallpaper, with herbs and words and ohhh I just can't describe the ugly of it all.

Near the skylight in the kitchen - over the bar. . .

How ugly can you get? And they were so bright you could land an airplane in there . . . and the light fixtures had all changed colors, I guess from the plastic getting hot, but none of them are the same disfigured color . . .

The old dining room chandelier - again with the landing of airplanes. This was so bright - even after we switched out the clear bulbs for white frosted ones - and just not my style at all - it had to go.

And now - the pretty new lights . . .

These pretty shell shaped lights in the master bathroom - better known as "my" bathroom. We found them at Lowes on our first trip there and I just couldn't resist them.

I love how they reflect in the mirror . . .

And in Don's bathroom - these remind me of sand and sea . . .

This is how they look with the light turned on - and no flash . . .

The pretty milkglass shades on the ceilings of both bathrooms - oh how I love milkglass. . .

Over the kitchen sink - the prettiest little light you ever saw - in the background you can see a hint of my teapot collection - and look at that white wall - ahhhh heaven - I'm in heaven I tell you!!!

Over the bar - now that's more like it - lovely hanging school house lights. . .

The new chandelier in the dining room - it is just like the one our son and DIL have in their dining room in WV . . .

With the new dimmer switch we can have mood lighting - isn't that the prettiest design on the chandelier?

And of course we can't forget sawing man. We don't have a fence to put him on - so Rusty attached a 2x2 to the top of the wooden swingset. Now we can see him while he is busy sawing wood all summer. In the winter winds he gets to go inside the shed where it is safer, and he can rest from his work.

We love the new lights - it is amazing how much of a difference they make in the look of the house - so much prettier. What have you changed lately to make your house more to your taste?