This was Saturday’s cleaning project.

The next-to-the-last piece of the putting-the-house-back-together project is this chandelier (the last piece is the replacement of the front door).  Yes, this is a cluster of grapes.  I spotted it in a Nebraska antique mall almost twenty years ago, but couldn’t figure out how to get it on the plane with me.  And I was very, very sad about that.

A few months later Banjo Man, returning from another trip to Nebraska, surprised me by shipping it home on the plane with him in a huge Rubbermaid container.  Each grape was wrapped in paper towels and the whole thing was encased in a sleeping bag.

Ah, love…

When the branch came through the ceiling it missed the chandelier by inches, but the light didn’t work.  We assumed the wires in the ceiling were damaged, but an electrician assured us this was not the case.  Was the lightbulb affected?  We hope that’s all it is, because we’ve bought another one of those 15+ year-life lightbulbs and the electrician is returning tomorrow to reinstall the lamp in the entry.

Last night I googled “grape cluster glass chandelier” and discovered that this light was most likely made in France.  The glass was probably hand-blown.  And had, in the past, sold for between $1600-$2250.

You can imagine how pleased my husband was with this information, as its price in Omaha had been $35.00.

It also has metal leaves that hang from individual chains.  I painted over the bits of rust with green paint, so it looks somewhat fresher.

Very soon we’ll be back to normal!