Our First Fixer Upper: All of the Lights

Just like our wedding, my wife has a propensity to focus on the little things. Whether it was the drink stirrers or knot type on each of the favors, she found a way to focus on these small issues and make a proverbial mountain out of a mole hill.

So what does this have to do with lights? Our home was built in 1994. With that comes all of the outdated, trump style, faux gold fixtures.

What was once a passing comment, "I hate those gold light fixtures on our garage" turned into "When are you going to change those damn light fixtures on the garage!"

Here is the thing, she already has 500 other things on her "honey-do-list" and now this just got bumped up to priority number 1. Its like ADHD home renovation! At this rate, we will have a bunch of half finished things!

I digress.

Here is what we were initially dealing with:

As you can tell, its a bit dirty, but trust me it was gold.

So after a quick trip to my new favorite store, Home Depot, I got started. Seemed simple enough until I figured out its better to take apart the lights first, see what you are looking at, then go to Home Depot.

Long story short, the electrical box that held the lights in place was rectangular, not hexagonal, which would not be an issue if the screws to hold the new lights in place were not parallel to once another. A hex box allows for the mount to be secured at multiple points while a rectangular box only allows one way to mount the bracket (parallel to the ground). I had to find new screws (always keep all extra screws, nuts, bolts, etc you never know when they come in handy) to jimmy rig this mount and light in place.

This is only a problem when the mounting screws for he lights are in the same location as the mounting holes for the bracket. Its hard to explain (and should have taken photos) but trust me, just take a look at what you are working with before you go. It will save you time! This also applies to everything else. Even if you think you don't need to, measure everything, write it down, and refer to it at the store!

Also, good to note, shut off the circuit to the lights and test the wires to make sure they are not live (older homes have a way for circuits and lights to have a mind of their own)

After an hour and a half (which should have taken a half hour) the lights were finally up and I got from my wife was, "Oh, they look nice. When are you going to redo the master bath vanity?"

Our new lights that only my wife and I will appreciate and actually notice: