Our First House!

[amybeth]

We just bought our first house (townhouse)...!!!!!!.fortunately, we made settlement in late February but do not have to move in until late March.

We have already started painting and will soon tear up all of the carpets to replace w/ new. It's SO nice to be able to do all of this work without our furniture in the house!

Our problem is lighting. We need a chandelier (sp?) for our dining room. We found one that we really like (Brushed Bronze, Murray Feiss, w/ shades) - but it is discontinued. We're trying to find something "timeless" - not too modern, but not too fancy.

Anyone have suggestions? This whole decorating a house thing is very new to me!

We want to stick with the darker colors (brushed bronze, dark wood) and light shades (white, cream).....Anyone know a manufacturer that we should be checking out?

Also looking for table/floor lamps that will coordinate (do not have to be matchy-matchy) for our living room, which is really part of the same space.

Thanks so much! It's such an exciting time - but I don't really have extra time for window shopping.

[blueeyedmanda]

We still rent so I can't answer your question but I just wanted to say, Congrats on the new house, it must be so nice to be able to have colors on the wall and decorate!!!! I can't wait till we finally find a house we like.

[jkmunchkin]

Congrats!! That is awesome. We bought our 1st house (also a townhouse about a year and a half ago and I love it).

Did you look online at all for the discontinued one you like? You'd be suprised. Even though it's discontinued there is a good chance you can still find it.

I don't know how much you are looking to spend, but if you still can't find it online, Home Depot, Lowe's and Expo (Home Depot's more upscale / decorating store) all have stuff that isn't that pricey, but good quality and looks nice.

[CarlaB]

Congratulations!

I would suggest buying things you like instead of what's "in style". If you fill your home with things you like, it will suit you and your husband and will never go out of style.

We just bought a dining room chandelier from a furniture store. Lowes is good, too. Lighting stores have the best quality and selection, but their products are usually the most pricey.

Another word of advice, buy what goes with the quality of the home. If you buy stuff that's above the quality of the other townhouses, then you won't necessarily get your money out of it when you sell. Of course, you can always take a chandelier with you. An example, if all the other townhouses have Formica counters, you probably won't get your money back from putting in granite.

[Kyalesyin]

Congrats with getting your first place!

The lighting really depends on the ceiling height- we have really, really high ceilings here, and we found that uplighters actually made the light a lot kinder than anything else.

[Jestgar]

Craigslist

Do you have that there?