New Foyer Light, aka How to Reinforce Packrat Tendencies

Such a dope, this post was accidentally pushed live though it was hardly finished.  I swear, me and technology sometimes....  Sorry if you saw this before it was ready and now some of it is a repeat or you got a notice but couldn’t find it.  Doh, such a dope!

So anywhoooo.....!

The day before, Mike was upstairs, he flipped a switch and I hear this bothered, confused exclamation, “what the hell?”

“Babe, that power is off, I’m changing a light fixture.”

“Oh. Uh, ok.” End of discussion.

So the next night he sees what I’ve done and the contortions his face made were quite impressive.

“What the...?  Huh?  What...what is that?”

“Oh.  You don’t like it?”

Face contortions continue. “Is that like some sort of torture device that drops down if someone enters that you don’t like? ....I think I’ve been playing too much Skyrim.”

“....”

“Oooh Iiii see what you’ve done. You’ve finally done the it’s ‘better to ask forgiveness than permission’ thing...”  I hate that phrase.

“Nooo.  Or, well, I guess?  I mean, don’t I usually I suppose?  Yeesch.  Wait.  No.  I told you yesterday I was changing a light fixture.”

“Yeah but I wasn’t listening, or I was but it didn’t register, or it did but I thought you were putting up that yellow thing (he’s referring to a free fixture I picked up on dangerous Craigslist, an Amazingly Cool fixture [see my Instagram post] with no specific spot in mind for it), or I dunno what you were doing, or I dunno, whatever.”

“So, what, you don’t like it?”

“I don’t have a current opinion.” Face contortions. “Yes.”

I’m not sure what the yes was in reference to but the fixture is up for now.

I was never terribly fond of the one I put up a few years back so it was always in the back burner of my mind to replace it, me casually shopping around or pondering DIY options all these years.

Ah.  Post- recessed can conversion kit.*  Pre-repainting the wall from stripes to abstract.  Seems like forever ago!

An Apartment Therapy Bazaar Marketplace email popped into my inbox a couple days prior.  Why do I subscribe to these things?   I mean, the whole point is to look at them, see cool things, shop, spend money.  Sigh. 

But there it was, featured right there in the email, this new fixture.  Before I knew it, I clicked the photo.  $90?  In Chicago even? 

Oh dear. 

Twenty inches tall?  Huh.  I’ll send a quick message, see if it is shorten-able.  Wait, what am I doing, why am I doing this?!  Ok, if it’s not, no harm no foul, right?  She wrote back near right away, yes, the pole is in two parts. 

Ah darn it.  Ok, yes, I’d be happy to meet you to see it.  Why do I do this to myself?

I guess because I had always kinda thought a spindly Sputnik-y type fixture would work well in this spot.  Granted I’d probably have to make a few adjustments around it for it to make complete sense but when has that ever stopped me?  Ha.  Ha ha ha ha ha.   Ahhh boy.

So I met her, offered her eighty, she said sure, on its way home with me it came. Yes, you can buy this fixture on Amazon* (where she had originally) and yes, brand new it’s eighty bucks.  So I didn’t save anything except help someone local lighten her load.

Ok, first dilemma, because not a darn thing in this house is ever simple or goes smoothly or I should just own up to my Murphy’s Law life...first dilemma is the cover part that meets the ceiling, much smaller, much smaller than the previous fixture.

Right, I know I saved the remaining parts from one of those recessed can converter kits.  Now, where is it?  Last I saw, in the garage.

I do remember cleaning up in there, holding the box in my hot little hand thinking, I’m not gonna need this, why am I keeping it?  I probably should though, I remember saying to myself.  Sigh.  Can’t find it.  I could possibly have gotten rid of it and now I need it.  

Didn’t I just discuss this last time?  “Yeah, I might need this again someday.”  Great.

Ugh, ok, so I ran over to the second home and found a trim piece,* five and a half bucks.  Ok.

It's a 6" trim ring!  Ok!

Get home and discover if I leave the circle that attaches the fixture to the bracket on the inside, behind the trim, the open circle of the trim ring isn't large enough.

Yeah.  That thing.

Ok, take the circle mount whoo-ha thing off, attach trim piece and heh, discovered that it doesn’t seat properly due to the converter kit bracket inside.  Ugh, heh, ok.

Doh!!

Down comes the trim piece and down to the basement it goes for adjustments because, well, this was an easy alteration, not a big deal.  Read:  too lazy to go run out again.

So with the rotary tool,* I cut two tabs and folded them over.  Dash upstairs, dash back up the ladder, tada!  Bingo!  I'm in business.

Smartly I marked the spots exactly with a pencil first before taking the trim down.

Ahhh, all better.

Ok.  Reattach that mounting circle thingie, wire up the new fixture, and voila!  Brand new foyer!

It's up!

I meandered downstairs to turn the power back on, came back up and it was flashing and blinking and holy disco party....The dimmer switch in the wall is a regular ol' dimmer switch and the fixture's previous owner had installed LED bulbs.  Doh!  Not compatible.

No worries.  An excuse for another Menards trip.  Woot woot!

I must admit, it is quite gold this fixture, gold-er than I anticipated.  And my five buck trim isn’t the most polished look in the end.  I may pick up a small medallion of sorts, like maybe this one* or a simple not large one here,* or huh, Wayfair has some different looks.*

Ok, my OCD friends, my apologies.  I know, the original can is severely off center making for a weird fixture placement.

Well, we'll see.  But for real, now my packrat tendencies were reinforced and that's bad, dammit.  Just when I finally was going to get to my January clean out on.  Or er uh, spring clean out on.

I did luckily sell the previous fixture for three bucks less than what I purchased for!  Woo hoo, mad skills!  Now if only the other stuff I have listed would sell so I can buy these for the master bath floor...Craaaaazzzyyy, toys in the attic I am craaaazzzyyy.

I dunno, it's kinda growing on me.

So obviously then, as usual, done is never done here, we eternally live in Limbo Land of Unfinished and/or Still Deciding Projects.

In the meantime, is it bad if I want to de-gold-ify it a bit?  In my defense, again, I thought it was going to be more brass than gold and not as waaaaahhhh!!! bright.

Mmm, although, hm, Mike just said he doesn't like it, "it's too busy."  I'm really striking out with him lately.  Well.  Guess the search continues.  Heh......  .........  ....Oh this* would be nice but it's waaay too expensive...

....ah drats, now I'm down a rabbit hole of online searching...see ya when I resurface.

*The ceiling medallions are Home Depot, Amazon, and Wayfair affiliate links, plus the recessed can converter kit, light fixtures, trim rings, and rotary tools are Amazon affiliate links.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.