Even before Dana was born I knew I would put a ridiculous amount of pressure on myself to get her photos on the wall quickly. Yes, I said I wouldn’t let differences in the number of photos get to me, and for instagram or facebook it generally doesn’t. The photo collections on the walls, however, are ones we see every day. I wanted parity. Besides, some of the ideas I had for photo collections had very real time constraints.

Back in march I told Domingo I had just one photo left I needed to update to include Dana.

The family portrait over the fireplace? He asked.

Okay, two.

Your phone lock screen?

… Three.

Oh, you mean the-

Point taken.

Anyway, the “one photo” I was thinking of back then was for our entrance way console photo collection. I have one of Alexis’s newborn photos by the tree, as well as Nicole in the window, each in a similar silver frame. What both photos have in common? Both are naked baby photos, both inside, neither against a backdrop, and in both photos my kids aren’t looking at the camera. Coming up with a similar photo concept for Dana was a tall order. I especially struggle with non backdrop backgrounds in formal photography, especially especially in doors.

Since it had to be a baby photo, the clock was ticking.

This afternoon while Dana was napping I looked up from my computer and noticed it was finally overcast outside. That meant nice outdoor photos without harsh sun were a possibility. While these types of days become more common in the fall, they’re often accompanies by cooler weather which would make naked photos impracticable. Here we were, end of August and I hadn’t taken a single nice outdoor photo of Dana yet.

By the time she had woken up from her nap and finished her lunch the sun was drifting in an out of the clouds. I started to assemble my camera, thought better of it, and changed my mind again. True, the lighting wasn’t great, but Dana seemed to be in an amenable mood. What’s the harm in trying?

I’m so happy I did.

The sun stayed mostly at bay, and we ended up with some cute photos. Dana squealed with delight outside. She has never seen this side of the house before, and loved it. Best of all, I now have a possible photo for my collection. Maybe I’ll come up with a better photo idea, one inside the house that better matches the photos of Nicole and Alexis. If not, at least I have this one.

This summer I replaced the picture of the mantel with a new family photo. Between my home screen and lock screen the kids each appear the same number of times on my phone. It’ll tide me over until I get a good portrait oriented photo of all three girls that fits the phones dimensions.

I’ve achieved parity.

Well, with one exception.

Now that The family is complete, and I’ve added Dana to my walls, many of these framed photos are photos I hope to never take down. The pictures are perfect. Now I want the frames to be perfect to match. My chief complaint? Reflections in the glass. Curse you California sun.

Glaze is the industry term for the clear substance (glass or acrylic) that sits between the artwork and the outside world.

The first thing I looked into was museum glass. I had done some customs framing at Michael’s and the Museam Glass did a good job at cutting down the reflections. Chief issues was that it’s heavy (not great in Earthquake country), an super expensive. The bulk + weight makes shipping impractical. I had a hard time finding places that would sell it to non custom framers or in small quantities. The places that would ship to me charged about $50 for a single 8×10.

I next came across water white anti reflective glass. Water white refers to the fact that it shouldn’t add any tint to the photos. Since I was framing artwork (the butter footprints) on white paper, that was very important to me. I found it did an excellent job of cutting down ambient light to the point were I could easily see the texture of the photos from a few feet away. Direct sunlight was a different story. It wasn’t as good with direct light as the Museum glass, and not as good as I would have liked, but better than the cheap glass that comes in the cheap frames. I went from not being able to see any of the photograph, to not seeing most of the photograph. An 8×10 ran about $20.

The third option was to skip glazing all together. It’s not a perfect solution as the photo paper itself is slightly reflective, but if you’re wall is going to be bathed in sunlight half the day, it may be the only thing that works. One drawback is your artwork isn’t protected from the elements. That’s less of an issue when your artwork can be replaced by your home printer, but something to keep in mind if it can’t. To go this third route you need to potentially consider how hard it is to replace a cheap picture frame.

I should detour and mention that most of my frames are cheap, costing anywhere from a couple bucks for the small sizes to $20 to the matted large frames. I do have a couple expensive frames (mostly gifts). The expensive frames have sawtooth hangers (a long piece of metal with serrated edge) for hanging on the wall and point tabs for keeping the frame and backing together. I worry those point tabs will eventually snap off with repeated picture changes, so I’d rather not change out those prints any more than I have to.

I went the no glazing route for my 3 favorite photos. They’re hung low, easy to reach, and the sawtooth hooks make them easy to take down and put back up. Should the originals fade over time without protection they will be easy enough to replace. For the kids footprints I opted for protective glazing. Anything that was too large to be printed at home, or the metal tab points made it difficult to replace also got glazing.

The final consideration was sizing. Most frames the glazing matches the advertised picture size. For frames that come with mats the mats typically corresponded with a common photo size. For example The matted 5×7 picture frame had a mat that was 11×14, and the glazing matched that size. I did have two frames (4×6 and 5×7) where that was not the case. The first was a quarter inch smaller in each direction, the second was a hair thinner but I managed to get the glass in with a bit of force. I only needed one custom frame size for that 4×6.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the old glass.

We lost another ceiling fan. That’s the third one to die in under two years. I suspect it’s another issue with the ceiling fan controller. That’s the issue claimed the previous two fans. So we’ll be making our third call to an electrician in less than a year. le sigh. Could be worse I suppose.

There’s a part of me that wonders if the problems we’ve been having may be a wattage issue. We noticed our outside bulbs had a ridiculously short half life until we went with a lower wattage. Could lower wattages help the ceiling fans last longer? Either way, it seems like a good excuse to finally make that switch to LEDs that we’ve been considering.

Of course I first thought of our experience with Hue light strips. I recently learned that Hue is making a line of white bulbs that let you choose the warmth/cool color level of the light which is appealing. You can set the light color temperature to what’s appropriate for time of day or activity, like photography. On the other hand I spent a lot of money on those light strips that are still in the closet, yet to find a good place in our new home. Then there’s the bulb size issue. Hue is coming out with a candelabra/candle but it won’t be available until later this year. Given all the grief I’ve gone with other new to market products, I have lost my desire to be an early adopter to anything. I decided to pass on Hue and it’s customobility… for now.

Instead I went with a lower wattage yellow light LEDs that bathes the room in an inviting glow. It’s not perfect for photography, but as long as the lighting temperature is consistent, I simple white balance adjustment will be fine. I opted to go with replacement bulbs in the recesses fixtures, rather than new recesses fixtures to give me the flexibility to change my mind on the color temperature later.

I started with the first floor, candelabra ($2-9 per depending on the shape) for the living room and dinning room and recessed lighting bulbs ($4.28 per bulb) for the kitchen. Hue is more typically $30 a bulb, but can range from $25-50 depending on a number of factors. I paid a lot more than that when the technology was brand new.

As for shopping, there wasn’t much of a selection in brick and mortar stores for the candelabra base. I had one option with each globe shape and couldn’t choose the color warmth. Online offered a way better selection, but prices varied wildly. It can also be really hard to gage whether it’s the right size bulb. It helped that the only non-medium (the standard household bulb base) base I needed was that candelabra.

To keep the price down, I bought in bulk and didn’t worry too much whether I was getting a “low quality” LED. From my research, quality in the LED world corresponds to longevity of the bulb. Even cheap LED are supposed to have something like 10 times the life of traditional bulbs. Good quality LEDs might have twice that life span. Either way, it’ll be a long time before I need to replace any of them. Given that, I set some extremely low price watches on CamelCamelCamel for replacement bulbs. That way I can be thrifty, and prepared at the same time.

Cheaper LED bulbs that last longer and require less energy than traditional bulbs. It’s the hat trick of saving!

One last tip which may sound kind of nutty: I separated my bulbs based on color temperature. Warm light bulbs are on one shelf, cool light bulbs on another. That way I can easily replace a burnt out bulb for another like bulb. I cannot stand mixed warmth lighting.

I’ve been thinking about updating our dress-up corner ever since the girls had a vintage style photo session at their school at the beginning of the year. (Vintage preschool photos are all the range around here, two of the three preschools we’ve gone to have done them.) I loved the idea of hanging one of their photos in the dress-up corner, which had turned into a pile of clothes since the coat hanger really isn’t enough storage space any more.

For the makeshift dresser I used a cheap, two tiered bookshelf. Cheap was an important criteria as I knew I’d be destroying it in the process of converting it into a dresser and I hate to destroy anything I spend money on.

I lowered the shelves and converted them into a two tiered shoe rack, attached hooks to the side of the bookshelf for accessories and strung a tension rode strung across to hold the clothes. Easy Peasy.

I had intended to use the pre-drilled holes the bookshelf came with, but they were two high for the shoe rack. The second shelf (obscured partially by the clothes) was at the lowest set of pre-drilled holes. Even as it is, that shelf is a bit high for four year old clothes, really. Many of the capes especially hang over the edge of that shelf. To create the holders for the second, lower, shelf I screwed four wood screws into the wood, leaving them to protrude about a quarter inch for the shelf to rest on. I picked screws with heads about the same width as the pegs, so the shelf grooves would fit over them. I didn’t bother doing a very thorough job of the placement of the shelf. I lined it up where I wanted it to go, and used one of Nick’s crayons to mark the shelf grooves before screwing in the screws.

To hold the superhero masks (because every child needs a super hero mask or 10!) I used wall hooks. The screws that came with the wall hooks were far too long for thin bookshelf wood, so I just glued ’em on (E6100, my trusty standby). I used masking tape to help hold the hooks steady while the glue was drying. Not the most elegant solution, but it works well enough.

The picture that started it all. Aside: If you want to take a photo of a picture frame, but your reflection keeps getting in the way, get a longer lens and stand further back. From a distance you can stand slightly to the side of the frame rather than directly in front and have minimal distortions.

I’m very happy with the way this project turned out. It got the dressup clothes off the floor is a nice, organized manner and looks nice. Now if only I could find a simple solution for the rest of my house…

Dresser Material Costs:
2 Foot Wide Black Bookshelf – $17.99
2 Sets of Wall Hooks – $3.99 (x2)
Tension Rode – $2.97
=====
Total: $28.94

Oval Picture Frame ($18)

Painting the playroom is still on my todo list.

It suddenly dawned on me that in a few weeks we’ll have been in our new home a full year. After the electrician ended up not being nearly as expensive as I feared, we decided to hire him back and fix a few more issues for us.

Most critical was the fire alarms. Shortly after moving in the fire alarm above the stair case went off in the middle of the night, thoroughly freaking out Nicole. A fresh pair of batteries and it would still occasionally chirp, reigniting Nicole’s fears each time. The alarm was probably past it’s prime and needed to be replaced. The alarms in our home are interconnected, so the simplest solution was to purchase the same brand as the faulty alarm and just switch out the alarm leaving the harness in tact. But I couldn’t find a replacement. It turns out the manufacturer of the fault alarm had gone out of business ten years ago. (The National Fire Protection Association recommends replacing fire alarms every ten years.) All five of the fire alarms we had in our home from that manufacturer were likely past their prime. Not only would the harnesses need to be replaced, but it would need to be re-wired.

State law requires a fire alarm in each bedroom and in the nearby vicinity outside the bedrooms. With the layout of our home, that means four fire alarms (including the faulty one) within 6 feet of each other. Two of which looked brand new, the others needed to be replaced but still appeared to be functional. I didn’t see much harm in leaving this one disconnected this past year. The problem arises should we ever decide to sell the house. Besides, those other old fire alarms felt like a ticking time bomb. They were functional now, but how long until age caused them to go off randomly in the middle of the night?

Original office ceiling fan, most definitely not my style

The second issue we had was the ceiling fans. The ceiling fan in the office was original to the house, and the light could no longer be turned on. It was a minor annoyance since we could use a lamp. The previous occupant of Alexis’ room had held a broom up to the fan, damaging one of the blades. Although it was still fully functional, the damaged fans was one of the eye sores I noted when I first toured the house. Fixing it would drastically increase the visual appeal of the room.

Much more my style, and – bonus! – it works!

The electrician has been recommending we switch out our lighting fixtures to more energy efficient ones. It’s an appealing idea. The LEDs require less energy and create a whiter light better for photography. I’d love to get those eyelights I’ve been wanting, and a more modern chandelier in the dinning room would be nice. That’s the problem with home improvements. There’s always something else that can be improved upon.

For now I’m moving on from the electrical improvements. Alexis’ room is still purple, except for one two foot splash of cream from when I thought I’d try out a new color. From July. I should probably actually, you know, paint.