This morning I drove over to Cottenham, and collected two chandelier style light fittings. More Freecycle freebies!
Ok, they’re not 100% to our tastes. But they’re light years (wah-wah-waah) better than what we inherited from the previous owner of our property.
And what’s more, there are two identical fittings, which suits our open-plan lounge/dining room areas poifeckly. Now we have a more unified look – and prettier, to boot – throughout.
Installing these fittings is both easy and a right pain in the arse. In principle it’s a cinch. But the working over your heard, arms upraised and neck crooked… and it being fiddly getting the wires connected/stowed, and the whole thing attached to the ceiling. Well, it didn’t take long. But I wouldn’t say it was fun.
Still, I’m happy with the end result. It also has the pleasing effect of giving more light. Our long through lounge can be quite gloomy. Especially now, in the deep, dark depths o’ winter.
The second set of lights proved to be much harder. I was working on it, off and on, all afternoon and into the evening. For one thing the wiring is more complex, as it also feeds the kitchen annex lights. Sorting it out so it would stow in the ceiling rose was a real arse-ache.
The little metal bracket that one fixes onto the ceiling, and on to which the light fitting then attaches, was missing from this second set. I tried fashioning my own, and I tried using another from a different place in the lounge (where we have two redundant wall lamp fittings).
Sadly neither of these worked. There’s a joist visible through the gap where the wires come through, so I screwed through the plasterboard and directly in to that.
At this juncture, rather annoyingly – quite apart from only having three bulbs left for this set of lights, and only one of those working – the kitchen lights stopped working. I must’ve somehow broken a link somewhere in a circuit. Hmm!? What to do? Might have to get an electrician in to have a look/sort it out.
Okay, popped out to Boyes early today, and bought a set of five LED ‘candle’ bulbs. Installed ’em, and presto! All working. But the kitchen lights are still non-functional. So… roll up the sleeves, take the g’damn light fitting down again, and investigate. There must be a break in the circuitry somewhere.
And relax… I finally rewired and remounted the whole shebang, really taking care over the wiring, and now everything’s working as it should. Thank goodness! Didn’t even have to call in a sparky. Total cost of installing these two five-light chandeliers? £13 for the bulbs. Not bad!