To be a fly on that chandelier

A time not too terribly long ago, this was the height of chic home design in America:



Now it looks like a kitschy prop from "The Brady Bunch," but can you imagine the sights it must have seen? I wonder if it was all martinis and key parties or kaftans and casseroles. 

Today we bid adieu to the humongous fixture--soon coming to ebay or Craig's List near you!--and prepped the area for its replacement. I'm dying to show you all the new fixture, but I'm sitting on my hands in order to exhibit some blog restraint. The idea of one big "ta-da" post for the mud room feeds my resolve. My hope for this room is that in 30 years, my kids aren't cursing our names for being "sooooo 2011."

As with all things G-family redo, we ran into some unforseen challenges with this portion of the project.

The ceiling medallion was bolted into place, but there was no way to remove the bolts gingerly. BG pulled and twisted and finally... FINALLY... broke the medallion free. What he found under it (or above it, as it were) shouldn't have been a surprise given the other bits of strangeness this house has unveiled, but one of my eyebrows shot up to my hairline nonetheless:



A baby ceiling medallion!

The Mama medallion has undergone her transformation from ubiquitous peach to something fabulous and will be reinstalled shortly. The ceiling has been repaired (Duct Tape counts, right?). Next step: The new source of light goes up, but for now I have an itch to wear my Gerald Ford mask while watching Rocky Horror Picture Show and doing the Hustle.