It is expensive. This has led Brian and I to add several necessary skills to our repertoire, including, changing out light fixtures.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I have slowly been acquiring less antiquated lighting for my 1980's home.
I found a dome light fixture for $10 at a garage sale, normally $45 at Lowes. It is nothing astounding, but it is a far cry from its predecessor.
And here is the DIY via pictures.
First and foremost, flip the breaker that is associated with the light that you are switching out. I am all for up do's, but not in that fashion.
My first step is always to glare angrily at the offending light fixture and photograph it farewell.
Depending on your light fixture, there will either be two screws at the base, as with this one, or you will have to twist the base to reveal them, or with a dome, unscrew the middle know.
With this light fixture, there were two knobs at the base, I unscrewed these caps and it allowed the light to dangle down, revealing the wires:
And also revealing a spider catacomb. Ew.
A glorious invention that makes this whole process so much easier are the wire nuts. They are the red plastic pieces in the picture. They twist the two sets of wires together for you by just inserting both ends in and twisting. It is fabulous. In this case however, you will just untwist the wire nuts and then pull the wires apart. (The ones from the ceiling and the ones from your light fixture)
Next I needed to change out the bracket (the silver piece in this picture) that connected to the junction box in the ceiling.
Also, as safety was not key in the eighties, it was necessary for me to add a ground screw to the box. There was already a space for it but no screw to wrap the ground wire around. Your ground wire on a light fixture will always be an uninsulated copper wire and is now required for legal code.
It is just an ordinary screw, the one inside the junction box in the picture above.
The next step was to connect the two white wires with the wire nut and the two black wires with the other wire nut to the new light. There was not a lot of space for me to maneuver while doing this, but once that was done, I mounted the base of the new light to the ceiling by placing it over the screws hanging from the bracket and securing with a nut.
The next step is very easy, install your light bulbs, place the glass dome in place and screw the long screw into place, securing with decorative knob at the bottom of the light.
Flip your breaker back on and enjoy the money you saved and the environment you enhanced.
