we're high class now!

As promised, Husband is going to talk you through becoming just as high class as we are! 
With Under the Cabinet Lighting!
Those of you whom are home owners with the real thing might laugh,
but for us apartment dwellers...it makes a big difference in the kitchen.
So, with no further ado....Husband!

Hello world!
As described in a previous entry, we added under cabinet lighting, using rope lights strung end to end.
We have only 2 cabinets, both small, that are right next to each other and very close to an electrical outlet that we could plug our lights into. Depending on your kitchen, that may affect how you set your lighting up.

First, I got out the measuring tape and measured the distance the lights would need to run along the inside edge underneath our cabinets.
After totaling up all of the distances I wrote down, I went to Home Depot's website and found out the lengths of rope lights that were sold.
In our case, we needed 16 ft. of lighting but they only sell 2ft., 6ft., 12ft., 18ft., and a few more longer segments.
So I bought 2 x 2ft. ropes and 1 x 12ft. rope to equal our 16ft.
These lights are great because they can be strung together and securely screwed to each other, with no extra wire in between like Christmas lights would.
I also bought an extra set of mounting brackets since each rope only comes with a couple and not enough to properly hang the ropes securely and flush with the cabinet.

So here's the final shopping list:

2 two foot rope lights
1 twelve foot rope light
1 set of extra mounting brackets

(These numbers and lengths can vary depending on the size and how you would like to light your kitchen)

I started the rope light near the wall closest to the outlet I wanted to use.

I gave myself enough room so that the chord could bend behind the lights back to the outlet and put my first mounting bracket in (about 2 or three inches from the wall). The brackets should be close to the cabinet edge and screwed into the bottom of the cabinet.

The brackets should also be placed no more than 1 1/2 feet in between them.
With each bracket, I clipped in the rope light and pulled it taught.

When I came to a corner, I positioned my rope light as I wanted it to sit, and used that to position where my bracket should go. Then I put the braket at a 45 degree angle in that corner to properly bend the light round the corner and keep it flush.

Putting the rope in to guide the placement of your bracket will give the rope room to bend while keeping it close to edges.

The tricky part was getting the rope over the edge joining the two cabinets.
Katie suggested just going over the edge but doing it closer to the wall. This does well to hide the cross-over when you are enjoying the lighting from within the kitchen or standing outisde of it (if you are sitting looking up at it, you are going to see everything no matter what!).

My wife is so smart!

The last trick was hiding as much of the chord as possible.
Since the outlet was so close we had a lot of extra chord so I simply coiled it up and used the twist tie that it came packaged in to keep it together and twist tied it to my rope light that was secured right there and it keeps the project much neater (You can see this in my first pic at the top).

Now I just plugged in the lights and enjoyed the difference the extra lighting made.

 

new things on the homefront.

today, in addition to decorating for christmas, we did some homemaking.
two things.
i had a project, and husband had a project.

for my project,  picture this, if you will.
in our bedroom, we have a large mac desktop for husband to animate things on.
and of course there is a big chair for the large desk, and no one sits in it much these days.
and we pile clothes, and pillows on the chair.
plus, we store some things under the desk.
the whole thing always looks sloppy.

i woke up one morning with an idea.
what if we sold the chair on craigslist, and get a cushioned folding chair.
and then sew some curtains under the desk to hide the stuff.
and provide for some more shameless storage.

today, we did just that.

and we love it.

getting ready to do some hemming.

hemming.  with mimm's machine.

finished product.  (notice the roses husband brought me last night.)

husband's project.  (look for a step by step written by husband in the near future!)
we were able to visit our friends loi and marshall in FL.
loi is a pretty amazing decorator.
while at their house, we were inspired by their use of rope lighting!
we wanted to put in some under the counter lighting for our little kitchen.
just to add some pizazz.  and make it look like a sweet upgrade.

we really like the way it turned out too!  for real.

husband hard at work.

before.

after.

our cozy house.

we live in the wealthiest area of the US.
and if I hadn't gotten a job, we could have qualified for section 8 and subsidized housing.
that's how much money is in this area, and how much money we are not making.

when we started looking at apartments we knew how much we could afford.
30 percent of our current income.
several people told us we would never find a place to live with that kind of budget.
but, they didn't know we are the favorite children of heaven.
and that God was preparing the way for us.

30 percent may not get us into greenwich. 
and it may not get us a washer and dryer.
is sure doesn't get us dish washer, or much storage.
but it did get us hard wood floors.
great landlords.
a real bedroom.
and electric heat.

we are learning to live with less.
and learning to clean out more.
we get creative with storage...non perishables fit great under the couch.

sometimes i check craigslist, just to see what else is out there.
but, then i look around our cozy little home...and realize that we really love it here.
that we have everything we need.
that more room would just mean we would accumulate more.
another closet would mean we could hold onto more.
and a washer and dryer would just mean more laundry days.

welcome to the northeast.
welcome to our cozy little home.

our living room, with our adventure wall

our tiny kitchen

amazing, expandable table

on our bedroom wall

our bedroom

the office in our bedroom