More Lighting Upgrades

We've got another lighting upgrade to share with you today, this one is in the form of a bathroom light.  I learned a couple of things during this project: One -when you have a bathroom with absolutely no natural light, you need a light fixture that will provide ample light.  And, two - an outdoor light is not always a good choice for a bathroom, especially one with absolutely no natural light- a little on that later.

We began the process of taking down the old light in this little cave of a bathroom, which was a little bit funny since it was pretty dark once the light was gone - even in broad daylight.  So when replacing a light in a windowless room a head flashlight is a must.  I know Justin will appreciate that I included this picture.

And, the old ugly globe was gone!  

In the beginning of this light switcheroo I had this brilliant idea that we were going to replace our old tacky light with a cool new lantern outdoor light because it would be all cute and rustic.  Hmmm, terrible idea.  Here is the light I decided on for our bathroom-

The idea was so much better in my head.  Once the light was up we had a big issue, the dome over the lightbulb allowed hardly any light to shine except down, which was horrible.  It also just didn't look right, I wish I had taken a picture but I was so disappointed it pretty much came down immediately.  So off to the hardware store to return it (always keep your box and receipt, especially when you have a brain fog moment when you think you are going to be really creative but just bomb).  I wasn't really sure what I was going to do at this point.  I didn't want to spend any more money so whatever light I chose had to match the $20 I spent on the previous outdoor light.   But, to my surprise there were several options for $20 and under that I felt would work - and anything would be better than the original light (well, maybe not anything because this outdoor light was just as bad - but you get what I mean).

So, I chose a little bathroom vanity light in brushed nickel (which matches the finish of the rest of our lighting upgrades) and Justin quickly installed it while I anxiously waited the reveal.

Ahhh, so much better and $20 isn't bad.  

Not only is the light much prettier, but we can actually see in there again - always a plus.

Light is a repeating theme in the bible.  Jesus is the light of the world, he is the source of our light and we are to shine our light to the rest of the world.  There are things in our life that sometimes keep us from always shining - sharing God's love.  Things that cause our lights to be dim.  So this makes me think, am I always shining God's light, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control?  I know there are some things on that list that need to be worked on for me. Patience is something I'm constantly reminding myself of these days (mom's can I get a shout out).  I always thought of myself as a patient person, that is until I had a child.  So I know I sometimes let my impatient nature take over instead of taking a deep breath, seeing the big picture and enjoying life, (because it's a precious gift) and shining the light of patience on others.  That patience is only something I can have because I know God, therefore it shines a light on Him as well so others may understand His goodness.  So take a moment with me today and see where your light has been hidden and needs to be restored.  God's light is a beautiful gift that so many others need to receive.  

You, O LORD, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.  Psalm 18:28

Lighting Upgrade - Bathroom

Bonus tip, always remember to stop your drain so you don't
lose your screws and such down the drain.

Yesterday we showed you all of the glorious light fixtures we had illuminating our home when we purchased it.  Today, we have our first light replacement project and it begins in the bathroom.  Over the weekend, we had heard of a huge sale taking place at the Lights Unlimited store so we shimmied on over early Saturday morning for their "yard sale" and incredible prices.  We arrived before the sale was supposed to begin but there were already people there gobbling up all of the awesome light deals.  We did happen to snag a light fixture for our bathroom - a mere $10, originally $135 or something crazy like that (I wonder if they just put random high prices on those things so you think you are getting an out of this world deal) either way, we got a great deal.  We also found outdoor lighting that we will be pulling out when the right time comes (get the house painted first).  So when King Silas went down for his nap we Justin got to work on replacing that light.  I was there for moral support, I guess.

The first thing we did was to determine which fuse belonged to the bathroom so we could get the electricity turned off while Justin worked.  This was actually more time consuming than originally thought, it took us going through the fuses 3 times before we figured out which one it was - partly because we had unscrewed all of the bulbs in the bathroom first and had no light to go by.   Hey, we are rookie remodelers remember?  We did eventually find it and got the electricity off.

This is a nice picture of the collection of dust on our old fixture.

Next, Justin got to work removing the old light fixture.  This was simple enough - just unscrewing the fixture base and straps and disconnecting the electrical wires.

This is our old light fixture but you can see the different colored wires here.

Then he began installing the new light fixture by matching up the colored electrical wires and connecting them together.  You first begin with the white wires (they are the neutral wires), then the black wires (the hot wires) and finally the copper (the grounding wires).  The wirenuts are then put on to hold them in place.

This is Justin working on the ground wire - you can see from comparing to the picture above the difference in fixture straps - the new one has an extra swivel strap for adjustment.

The fixture strap is the next piece that is screwed into the wall.  Since our lighting is fairly old we did have a different type of fixture strap that we removed than what we installed.  Basically our old one had one single strap and the new one had two, with one being able to swivel to adjust to the appropriate level.  Justin adjusted the strap accordingly and screwed it into the wall.  This will give you a level light fixture.

The last piece to install was the actual light fixture base, which was simply screwed into place.

After everything was installed we popped in some light bulbs, turned the electrical fuse back on and enjoyed our $10 light upgrade.

This project was actually pretty easy to do and I am liking the added elegance this new light has added to our bathroom.  It has really stepped up the class in there.  I guess I should add that before we moved into our house we had a licensed electrician go through our entire house and address any issues we had - so we knew going into this project that everything was properly wired and functional before starting.  Now that we have this new light we are feeling pretty fancy and we will be on the hunt for more lighting updates in the future.

So here is the before and after on our little diy light fixture upgrade project:

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