Let there be light in the breakfast nook

I wrote previously about the light fixture in our breakfast nook, originally I wrote about how it was not really our taste and so I was planning to update it rather than replace it. Then I wrote about how when I got a better look at the light fixture that I discovered that it was not in good enough shape to continue to be used, that the plastic outer casing around each of the light bulbs was somewhat burned. This of course was especially concerning since the bulbs that had been in the light fixture exceeded the maximum allowable wattage for the fixture so we weren't sure if the fixture might even have some actual damage due to being overloaded.


Well when I pulled down the old fixture I discovered that the wires were mildly damaged so I had to cut the wires back and strip them in order to hang the new fixture we had purchased, of course if you try this at home please remember to turn off the circuit that corresponds to the outlet where you will be working. Once the wires were cut and stripped it was time to hang our new light fixture. This is much easier than many people think it is, all you really have to do is connect the live or hot wires to each other and fasten them with a wire nut and then connect the neutral wires to each other and fasten them with a wire nut (the black wire should be the live wire and the white wire should be the neutral wire). Honestly the most difficult part of the whole thing was cutting and stripping the wires, well unless you want to count drilling the hole for the hook to swag the chain off of so the light hangs in the center of our table. Of course that was only so difficult because I didn't have the right drill bit for the job so I had to make it wide enough with the bit I had. And of course once we got the light fixture up we put a nice little CFL bulb in the fixture. I love CFLs because they don't get nearly as hot as the incandescent bulbs do, just remember what the old fixture looked like after it had too strong of incandescent bulbs in it.

Light bulbs

As I was switching out the incandescent chandelier bulbs in the living room sconces with CFL's last night I discovered that the bulbs that were in the fixture were 50 or 60 watts each (I couldn't quite make out the tiny writing on the tiny metal base of each bulb). I'm not positive if the light fixture itself can handle that kind of wattage or not, but one thing was painfully clear, the chandelier shades that covered the light bulbs could not handle those bulbs. The plastic underneath the decorative fabric on the shades, which appeared to be there to give the shades their shape, was cracked and then proceeded to crack even more when I touched the shades in order to remove them to swap out the bulbs and then put them back on with the new bulbs in place.

It really surprises me how bright of bulbs were being used in this house previously, especially since the house is fairly bright in the daytime without any lights on. Now I am left to find new shades to replace the existing shades on the wall sconces in the living room. That is unless I can figure out some way to repair the existing shades. I am also left knowing that I really need to swap out all of the incandescent bulbs in the house as quickly as I can for fear that the bulbs might damage more of the fixtures or cause an even bigger problem.

Upon closer inspection of the chandelier style shades that are on the wall sconces I found that there is no metal boning to help give the shades their structure, sadly that means that there is no easy salvaging of these 4 shades. It looks like that is one more thing to add to the ever growing shopping list for the new house. So far the closest I can find online are 6" Ekas shades at Ikea and are $7.00 each, that means $28 to replace something that probably shouldn't have needed replacing if it were used properly. Oh well, at least for now we haven't stumbled upon any big and expensive problems that we were unaware of.

Light for the breakfast nook

Now that we are in the house and I am able to really get to know the house and what our specific needs are for this house and the various areas of the house I can start considering what to purchase for the house. One of the big surprises that I stumbled upon was a problem in my hopes to reuse the chandelier in the breakfast nook. The plastic part of the light fixture near the light bulbs is somewhat melted, it could be from using light bulbs with too high of a wattage for the fixture or since the inside of the shades are reflective it is possible that even using the maximum wattage allowable in the fixture was too much for the plastic parts close to the light bulb to handle. Either way I am left looking for a new light fixture for the area now. Not a big deal since the chandelier in there was not really our taste so I was going to have to do something to change the look of the chandelier anyhow so that it would be more inline with our tastes.






















I found one that I really like at the Pottery Barn, the Porter Pendant. The only issue I have with the fixture is that I can't really drape the cord to make it hang off center in the space. I want to do this because I plan to put the table up against the window and if I don't put the fixture off center towards the window then we will continue to bump our heads on it as we have been doing with the current light fixture. For now I had to move the table so that it is under the current light fixture so that we won't continue to bump our heads on the light fixture. It will be nice to finally get a light fixture in there that suits our tastes and that we won't continually bump our heads on.

This morning I stumbled upon a similar light fixture with a chain at Ikea, the Kroby Pendant Lamp. Of course this lamp doesn't have the same cool factor as the one at the Pottery Barn which raises and lowers on a pulley system and is modeled after the antique lamps that once lit workshops in Paris and it also doesn't allow for as bright of a light bulb (60 watt max vs. 100 watt max with the larger Pottery Barn light), but since I will save over $100 on this light and it will be able to be hung off center easily so that it hangs in the center of the table preventing people from bumping their heads on it and of course our house is pretty bright even without lights on so I am pretty confident that this light will prove to be a good choice for us.

Electrical - wow

During our inspection we learned that although there were three pronged outlets throughout the house the ones in the original structure were not actually grounded. This led us to request that GFCIs be put in the areas required by law as well as asking them to ground the outlets throughout the house. When the handyman showed up to give the current owners an estimate on the work to be done they were told the whole house would need to be rewired in order for the outlets to be grounded. This would include ripping open the walls which would be very costly as the tile in the kitchen and bathroom are vintage (original to the house from 1948) and therefore we could not simply replace the tiles that are damaged, but would have to retile everything. He quoted a reasonable price for the GFCI outlets, however without the outlets first being grounded they won't work the way they are intended. All this being said there was a little good news for us, there is a grounded outlet in the living room behind where their TV currently lives and the West wall of the North bedroom is also grounded.

Once we get in the house I can take a better look at the electrical myself and see if I can ground the outlets myself or if that is just not in the cards for us, this will depend on a number of things like what kind of wiring we have in the house. I'm hoping that we can find a way to ground the outlets without having to rip open the walls, because that would take us some time to be able to do. If that is the only way then we would hold off on at least the kitchen and bathroom until we are ready to remodel them since that would mean having to retile anyhow.