Blogging again. Of course.

light fixtures

Year before last I bought some light fixtures to replace the single bulb ones in the kitchen, living room, and my bedroom. I only just got to replacing two this week. The ones in the kitchen.

A ceiling light fixture with shade removed, revealing a single bulb.

A ceiling hole in plaster with three wires sticking out - two black wires from the hole connected with a wire nut to another black wire, one white wire from the hole connected with a wire nut to another white wire; crammed into the hole are more wires wrapped in electrical tape, and the plaster outside the hole looks scorched.

A hole in plaster with wires sticking out; crammed into the hole are more wires wrapped in aging electrical tape.

Taking off the first fixture, I wondered what this hell was. Then realized these lights are wired in series. The ground wires were not connected. I sure hope this circuit was grounded somewhere.

The tips of the wires were poking out of the electrical tape, as they tend to do. That's what wire nuts are for.

The old wire was super stiff and hard to move, and the tape started coming off anyway, so I stripped the rest of it, added wire nuts, and applied new tape.

I followed the directions on the packaging of the new lights and I DID connect the ground wires. It did take two separate occasions, due to how hard the old wire was to bend (seriously got out of breath trying), how tired I got holding my arms up, and how hot it was near the ceiling. But it's done.

Kitchen ceiling with cabinets, stove, laundry appliances included in the wide angle shot; the ceiling has two bright flush mounted light fixtures.

In the background are the living room lights I still need to replace. You can see the difference.

A ceiling: foreground is a flush mounted light fixture spreading bright white light, background is a pair of similar fixtures spreading dim, uneven yellow light.