Light Bulb Time!

The sun is just coming up - everyone left together this morning and the workmen won't be here for an hour and a half. Peace (and hot black coffee) in the early sunshine - pretty fab!

The lighting installation was done by end of day yesterday. I'm thrilled about it. Eleven halogen pot lights in the rec room will finally allow me to to see what I'm knitting down there. Halogen pots in the hallways will also tie in the lower level with the upper level where such lighting has already been installed. Look how soft and beautiful the light is  - even in this shot of Number One Son's luggage as he left for Quebec in the wee hours this morning. I'm thrilled. Thrilled. Thrilled!

The now thicker wall around the window will soon feature a beautiful deep windowsill - another big favourite of mine. 

 The drywall arrives today along with the cabinets for the laundry room. I won't be here for the big arrivals - I have to source a counter top. I discovered yesterday that the custom sized one I had in mind will be just stupidly expensive so I changed the layout for the laundry room - we're back to stacking the laundry pair rather than running counter over the top of them. This of course has changed the cabinetry layout but with Ikea cabinets that's no problem.We did the kitchen reno thing a bout four years ago. That cabinet exercise was so exacting, so stressful and had such long lead times. This cheap and cheerful approach is much more relaxed.

The insulation is 9/10ths done. It made the room feel warmer almost immediately.

My Beloved is most excited about another arrival today - the guys who will give us the ideal plan for the sound and television system. Throughout our children's lives we've worked to never celebrate TV or any screen activity as "entertainment". In fact its only in the last three or four years that the TV has ever been on in the evenings during week. During elementary school the kid's lives were very busy with school, sports teams of every possible variety and with significant musical endeavours. Their limited time at home was filled with homework and practice and for pleasure in the evenings we read aloud to them. We felt strongly we should model the behaviour we wanted them to develop so during those years there was no TV for us in the evenings either - at least until they were sound asleep!

This approach was sometimes a point of contention and they often tested and challenged us on it but we generally held firm, its all they've ever known, so now its their habit. Hence last week when we disconnected the TV and My Beloved and I were discussing where to set it up for the period of the construction, Number One Son said "can't we just do without it?" Darling Daughter chimed in that she certainly wouldn't miss it.

Its  funny (and a little bit scary!), how  kids regard as "normal" whatever their formative years consistently look like. We designed and enforced the TV and screen time limits when they were young and now its more natural for them than for us! So the Dad is uber excited at the prospect of a long overdue upgrade to our entertainment systems while the kids are comparatively blase about the whole thing. 'Talk about a light bulb going on!

Happy Wednesday everyone!