My Home Depot girl
About a month ago I was in Home Depot getting supplies for some home project. The girl at self-checkout line stopped me to let me know that she sees me in the HD almost every week for months -- I must really like doing home projects. How embarrasing.
It's true that I have this thing for doing projects, and my wife accuses me "finding stuff to do". But I do have some great tips for anyone who is interested.
About a month ago I replaced the chandelier in our front entry. The new lighting fixture was the bowl-type and very heavy. The most difficult part of hanging this type of fixture is pulling it up and not having a two free hands to secure the chain. While they do make quick-connect brackets for the box in the ceiling, I used another method my Dad told me about. Take a heavy-duty eye screw and put it in a stud in the ceiling near the box. Use a rope tied to the chandelier and looped several times between the eye-screw and chandelier as a pulley-type system. This allows you to easily get the chandelier to height, then you can tie the rope to secure the fixture. Then you have two hands to attach the chain and do the wiring, and can slowly lower the fixture once that is done without bouncing it around. At the end take out the eye screw and spackle over the hole from it.
Another tip is for wobbly fans. I found that ours in our master bedroom was due to the box racking in a certain direction. My solution was to inject "Great Stuff" (the sprayable foam that hardens) around the box between the studs to stabilize the box. Now the fan spins true with no annoying noises.
It's true that I have this thing for doing projects, and my wife accuses me "finding stuff to do". But I do have some great tips for anyone who is interested.
About a month ago I replaced the chandelier in our front entry. The new lighting fixture was the bowl-type and very heavy. The most difficult part of hanging this type of fixture is pulling it up and not having a two free hands to secure the chain. While they do make quick-connect brackets for the box in the ceiling, I used another method my Dad told me about. Take a heavy-duty eye screw and put it in a stud in the ceiling near the box. Use a rope tied to the chandelier and looped several times between the eye-screw and chandelier as a pulley-type system. This allows you to easily get the chandelier to height, then you can tie the rope to secure the fixture. Then you have two hands to attach the chain and do the wiring, and can slowly lower the fixture once that is done without bouncing it around. At the end take out the eye screw and spackle over the hole from it.
Another tip is for wobbly fans. I found that ours in our master bedroom was due to the box racking in a certain direction. My solution was to inject "Great Stuff" (the sprayable foam that hardens) around the box between the studs to stabilize the box. Now the fan spins true with no annoying noises.
posted by John Kacher | 7:11 AM
1 Comments:
Love the blog. 3 years is a long time with no post... Now that you have all this spare time you have no excuse. kidding - you are about to be very busy and very tired. :)
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