Installing my first light fixture

Because of our 23 year age difference my husband, Ralph, made sure that I knew about home repairs. We did all sorts of projects together including plumbing, electrical, plowing for the garden, mixing and pouring cement. He said he did not expect me to know how to do some of these things alone, but to know if I was being ripped off by someone I hired. Ralph, honey, I was paying attention. Look at what I did!

The light fixture in the guest bath was horrid. We changed other fixtures when we moved in, but not the ones in the bath. Because I am going to paint in there I knew it was now or never.

This is the old fixture. Yuck!

These are the easy to read (if you can find the English section) directions for installing a new fixture; white to white, black to black, and connect the ground. I can handle this.

Not everything matches the directions. Instead of a box for the wiring the wiring just came out of a hole in the wall. I suspect this is because there is a stud where the box should be.

I can deal with this little bump in my road. I put up the support for the new light, being careful to level it because the support was welded together crooked. So far, so good.

I struggled to contain the wires under the cover of the light fixture, but I managed. I turned on the power and flipped the switch: BUZZT! Yikes, turn off the switch, turn off the power - what had I done wrong.

I dismantled the light and all looked well to me, but it did not work. Could I have nicked the covering of one of the wires because they were jammed together near where the screw went to hold the fixture on the wall?

I borrowed my neighbor's husband, Frank. I asked him to look at my wiring and tell me where I went wrong. I really wanted to do this myself.

Frank looked and said I did the wiring perfectly, but because it didn't work he would run the ground differently. BUZZT!

Now he was as puzzled as I was. He said it was a simple wiring job, that it would very difficult to do wrong. He futzed and futzed and at last found the smallest of nicks in the covering of the black wire. All it took was a little electric tape and I had LIGHT! (I owe Frank a chocolate cake.)

I know Ralph would be proud of me, so would my Dad, and you can tell that I am damned proud of myself.

The new guest bathroom light. Ta-da!

Playing With Color

Almost 11 years ago I moved into this house. It is a combination of the "Mediterranean" and "Santa Fe" styles. The paint color of the walls and ceilings throughout the house (including the garage) is sort of a cream color. I think the method they used to paint it was to mask off the windows, stand in the middle of each room and hit it with a commercial spray gun. I am about to change the house. All of the ceilings will be painted a pure white, as well as all of the base boards, doors, and other trim (that is the easy part to pick out). The choices for the walls are more difficult: both bathrooms, the front entrance, and the fireplace hearth have green/blue tile that I am not about to change out. The floor in the kitchen/dinning/living room area are an oak laminate. The carpet in the bedroom (which I had planned to pull up but won't because the boys love chasing each other around and around under the bed) is also a grey/green/blue. I do not like green, but I am stuck with it - sigh.

This is the guest bathroom (above). It has a skylight, but no window. The skylight is so bright that it looks like a light has been left on all of the time. This is the paint sample I voted least likely to work, but I was wrong. I will pick up a quart when I am in town next week. One room almost down except I need to pick out a new light fixture before I start to paint.

Above and below are my living room/entry/computer room (small formal eating area)/eating area/kitchen. While the kitchen and the eatting area are broken off from the other parts with a wall; the wall is 3 feet short of the ceiling. That is one HUGE ceiling to paint. The eating area has a lovely bay window that pours in light, the kitchen gets it light from the eating area, the computer room faces north and its window has a 9 foot porch ceiling over it. The living room has a set of french doors on the same north facing wall with the same porch over hang. The living room does have two skylights that keep it from looking like a cave.

For these one giant group of connecting rooms I picked a light green/blue. As you can see I have painted samples everywhere. I think I almost have it, but not quite. It is just a little too dentist office. I am going to look for a more greyed shade of this color: just a hint.

I have plenty of time to look for the exact right color and still work on the preparation of the walls and the painting of the ceiling. That ceiling alone may break me.

Stayed tuned for further developments.