Monday, September 3, 2012

Changing out the laundry room ceiling light...

After the family breakfast this morning we all had projects to look after....  For Chris and I we headed to the local lumberyard super store, where I purchased a simple light fixture to replace the laundry room light.

That light was a high intensity model that had the little tube bulb that costs $20 or more and puts out 300 watts or so, and every bit that much heat as well....

The fixture has cooked itself over the last several years and needed replaced, even before you thought about purchasing a new bulb...  I took the old fixture down before we left....  May as well toss out the burned out one so I don't get an attack of the cheap, and just purchase a bulb...

Well I did get an attack of the cheap, and purchased a fairly inexpensive fixture with a couple of compact fluorescent bulbs that equaled 100 Watts each for a total of 46 Watts in electrical draw..  We went on and shopped for most of the morning, farther into town and at Wal Mart....

But back at home I started into the installation of the fixture... No big deal it went right up and the bulbs screwed in and lit right up.....  But that was where the fly was in the ointment...

The bigger CF bulbs wouldn't allow the glass defuser  to go over the center bolt....  I had quite the time with this fixture, as the center bolt needed to be a bunch longer..  It looked easy but I couldn't get the short one out.

I took the whole fixture back down and ended up in the vise with it..   Taking parts off and apart..  The kids left to go for more shopping, and grandma put the little ones down for a nap...

I took the old center bolt out of the fixture that I had taken down in the new one, but then realized that part of the little nuts had been lost as I was disassembling the fixture....... Gone!  As I was down on my knees looking everywhere..........

Back into town, I wasn't able to find the little 4-40 sized nuts...  But that size wasn't really right... Based on the fact that the fixture was made in China, it must be in metric..   But I managed to find a bolt and nut to put back in...... Even though it was obviously wrong........!

So tonight the fixture is installed with its bigger CF bulbs, and as long as no one takes it down and looks with the critical eye, it will do.....  And it lights right up!!

We had the sun come back out mid afternoon, and the kids got to swim too.  Then we bar b cued some burgers here at home, and stuffed ourselves again....

Boy I hate these holiday weekends!!!  Not.........

Retired Rod

3 comments:

  1. Somehow changing a light fixture should not be a whole day's chore. But you do have perseverance (just like Jim) and it works. That's definitely a good thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who has to make more than one trip to the hardware store just to complete what's supposed to be a simple job. Mr. Murphy strikes again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How many Blonds does it take to screw in a light bulb??

    I don't know, cause I was a red head.....!

    ReplyDelete

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