Friday, May 30, 2014

Craigslist Chandelier

A few months ago, I showed you what we are facing when it comes time to finish the renovation of our living room.  The main obstacle in this has been wavering back and forth as we have tried to decide whether to attempt to save the cracked, sagging plaster ceiling in there or pull it down and put up a new one.  The 2011 earthquake did enough additional damage to the ceiling that we now are sure that pulling it down is the best and safest thing to do.

Removing the plaster will give us the opportunity to upgrade the lighting in that room.  We installed recessed lights in the ceiling years ago (I say "we", but it was my father-in-law who did it) ... and I plan to add a chandelier, to provide the perfect accent.

From time to time, I would search "crystal chandelier" on Craigslist to see what popped up.  I had a very distinct image in my imagination of what I wanted, and I finally found it last week!



The ad said that this chandelier was removed as part of the renovation of a house in downtown Fredericksburg.  He estimated that it had been installed during the home's last renovation, in the 1930s or 40s.  Makes sense, because of the style of wiring and the lack of any sort of markings on it.





1930 is about the time when OUR living room was given an update.  I know that the baseboards and window and door casings were replaced then, and I suspect that that's when the bookcase was built beside the fireplace.





In my search for the perfect chandelier, I was looking for one that didn't look like a dining room chandelier.  This one perfectly fits that description.  It's twenty-four inches in diameter, twenty-eight inches long, and every part of it is in perfect condition ... it's just totally filthy.





Having this chandelier on hand means that we no longer have to wonder about what we are going to do in the living room.  This project isn't going to get done any time soon, mind you ... we have other things that are much more pressing that require our time and budget.  Until the living room renovation rises to the top of the list, at least I have the comfort of knowing that the chandelier for that room is safely stored away until it's time to put it into place.

(photos in this post are from the Craigslist ad)

11 comments:

  1. Fabulous find! It is going to look gorgeous!

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  2. NICE! It's going to look perfect in our living room.

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  3. Beautiful and perfect for your home.

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  4. Wow. That's going to be beautiful. Gotta love Craigslist!

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  5. I recently bought a chandelier with a medallion similar to yours for the foyer. I finally found the perfect bulbs for the small room...great minds think alike...
    http://alabamaroses.blogspot.com/2014/02/journal-notesnever-ending-winter-front.html

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  6. Wow- That is quite a piece, Connie. I just love it...and what a find for Craig's List! xo Diana

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  7. The plaster on our living room ceiling is failing too. My contractor said he would put drywall up right over it. He will scree the drywall into the floor joists so which will hold the player up. He gave us an estimate of $1000 and it's a pretty big room. You shouldn't have to pull the plaster down because you could knock holes in it to run the electrical and install the lights. Demo of the whole ceiling would be really messy and costly.

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  8. Super cool. Can't wait to see it all spruced up and hanging from your ceiling.

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  9. Amy, the damage to our ceiling is severe enough that drywalling over it would not be a correct way to do this job. If you're standing in the room, it is obvious that there is a sag to a couple of sections of plaster, with debris having collected in the low places ... enough so that reattaching it to the lath or joists wouldn't create anything close to a flat surface to drywall over. If I could reattach it, we would do that, use mesh tape on the cracks, and skim-coat this ceiling like we did with the rest of the house and skip the drywall all together. This one just won't do that.

    I have never shied away from a job just because it would be messy or time-consuming, if I know that the result will be what I want to achieve. I hope your ceiling comes out exactly the way it's supposed to. Old house renovation is always an adventure.

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