Let There Be Light, Continued...

The entry light arrived from Rejuvenation and I put it up.  I chose as simple a fixture I could find that had a little bit of style so that it goes with the transitional look of the rest of the house.  I am happy with the fixture but the installation had a couple problems. 

The first problem, I anticipated.  The fixture is mounted to a pancake junction box so it does not sit flush with the ceiling.  I'll have to get something, a pice of trim or gasket to take up the half-inch space. This isn't too big of a deal since I'll have to take the fixture down when I paint the ceiling.  The second problem I had was with the fixture mounting screws.   It seemed that the folks at Rejuvenation didn't put the fixture together before they sent me because the holes drilled in the fixture didn't quite match those in the mounting bar that came with it.  I didn't want to send it back so I decided to file out the holes, each about 1/16 an inch so that I could stretch it to meet the mounting bar.  I'll have to let them know to watch out for this on other orders.  It was a pain in the ass but my remedy didn't hurt the appearance or mounting of the fixture.

All in all, I am happy with the fixture and hope that no one trips on the front steps anymore. 

Let There Be Light

some people think I'm some sort of Preservation/Restoration-Nazi, trying to make the home the way it was when it was first built. Though I would love to know what the home was like back then, I can't say as I would want to live that way. This is evidenced by our latest project: ceiling lights.
For the past few years, we have been collecting old-looking lights and lights that were originally in the home in the hopes that one day we can have them installed. One of my pet peeves about the house is that many of the rooms have sconces. My problem is that in such a small house, they have the impression of taking up space. Also, the light they emit is not the most useful. If we had a grand room accented by beautiful sconces, that would be one thing. Instead, we have a mish mosh of poorly placed fixtures. Finally, the original lights were all gas fixtures. I surely wouldn't want to go back to that.

This week, we started to remedy that with some new wiring and shifting of fixtures from walls to ceilings. When you walk into the Tiny Bungalow, you are greeted by this:

That fixture was removed and hopefully I will be able to put it on the face of the garage (I think it will look better there). We now have this in the front hall:My daughter's room had no fixture but the J-box from a previous fixture was there. We also found a nice fixture on a shelf in the basement that seemed right for this application. We had it re-wired and put up. It looks pretty good and as an added bonus, we got to install the cover-plate that we purchased 5 years ago. The most dramatic change was this beauty. Just look at how nicely it is centered between the doors. Well, it had to go. Now, in the hall between the bedrooms, we have this fixture. The globe for this and the one in the front hall are from my friend Will's place. He pulled out all his nice fixtures and tossed them. I was able to convince him to give me these. I think he now regrets the act. Incidentally, these used to be at the intersection of the beams in the ceilings in his place - they were WAY over the top but cool none the less. I think they look fantastic in the Tiny Bungalow. Thanks Will. Now, I have no excuses to delay plaster, woodwork, and painting in these rooms. Hopefully this will give me a little inspiration to start this in the Fall.