Less than 1, right? Not if changing that light bulb is part of changing out a light fixture. We had hollywood lights in our bathroom...not really the prettiest things on the planet, but they didn't look bad in the beginning. The trouble was that over the years, they started to rust and needed to be switched out. So we headed down to Lowe's and I left my wife pick out the fixture she wanted. Now, I had just switched out a smaller set of hollywood lights a couple of months before (the one in this bathroom had 8 lights, the smaller one had 3), so I was prepared for a couple of things:
So I proceeded to get the hollywood lights off the wall....the only thing that
was really a problem here was the screw on the left hand side had somehow gotten
caught up in some plastic in the insulation, so it took a bit of pulling to
get that out...I don't think I enlarged the hole any, or if I did, I didn't
really notice.
So at this point, I wanted to be as efficient as possible...when you're using
putty and things such as that, waiting for something to dry can take several
hours, so I wanted to try and do things so it would take as little time as
possible. I should mention, by the way, that this was Friday NIGHT.
I figured I'd be doing good to get the first round of putty going.
So I put in some putty, and headed to Lowe's and picked up
3 different electrical boxes (I NEVER buy just one, because you never really
know which one is going to fit best). The hole in the wall where the electrical
cords were coming out was right next to a stud, so I figured I might actually
be able to get one of the 'new construction' type of boxes in rather than an
'old construction' type.
So the next day comes...I really thought I'd get done on Saturday, because there really wasn't that much left to do. Well, the putty just wouldn't cooperate...if you've ever plugged a hole that's somewhere in between an normal hole and something you'd really have to patch, you know how putty in these types of holes can collapse a little bit and cause you to have to re-putty a couple of times to get it right. Also, one thing I hadn't thought of is that with the moisture in the bathroom, the putty took a lot longer to harden than normal. So after some sanding, re-puttying, painting over the other marks the previous s\fixture had left, I went ahead and called it a day. The other thing you have to realize is that when you're changing a light fixture, there are no lights! I didn't want to lug a worklight into the bathroom, so after dark, I just waited until the next day. Now, one other thing I did get done on day 2 was to get the electrical box up...I was able to use a new construction type and screwed it right into the stud.
So the next day doesn't start out too bad for the project, in fact, that's why there aren't any pictures up to this point...there was really nothing all that uninque about this job yet! The putty was finally dry and smooth after sanding, so I painted over that and let it dry. I also hooked up the wiring to the supplied plug, so the wiring was ready. I was finally ready to put the light up...this was around 5 in the afternoon, and I guess it's my fault for giving the builders any credit for putting holes in walls, but when I stuck the light up, the hole was too big, and there was an ugly gap beside the left of the base.
Now,
the only thing my wife noticed was that the light fixture was upside down...I
told her I was going to have to take it down anyway because of the huge GAP
IN THE WALL! So this gap was too big to putty, so I was going to have to
come up with some other solution. Being Sunday, Lowe's wasn't going to be
open much longer, and I was going to run out of daylight soon. I was supposed
to go to a movie with my friend, but I knew if I went to the movie Lowe's
would be closed when I got out, so it would be Monday before I could patch
the hole and Tuesday before I was finished...so I canceled going to the movie
to plug this gap! I went to Lowe's and picked up a patch kit, and after looking
at it, I really wasn't sure how I was going to use that to fix this gap.
That's when I ran across Great Stuff...and for what I was doing, it really
was great stuff!
To patch the hole, I cut out a piece of cardboard that could fit in the hole. It was a little difficult because on the right hand side of the hole was the electrical box, so I couldn't really get the cardboard in the hole the way it should be. The normal way of using this method to patch a hole is to make the cardboard a little larger than the hole, and put glue around the edges so it will stick to the wall...I did this the best I could with the right side not being able to be glued and not really having a lot of space behind the hole to get the cardboard in. I took a long screw and screwed it in the middle of the cardboard and stuckit in the wall....I put glue around the edges and pulled it against the back of the sheetrock the best I could and pulled out the screw.
So after the glue dried, it was time to use the Great Stuff. The instructions on the can are great, and I really wish I would have followed them all. Lessons learned:
• Wear gloves
Monday went smoother than any other day....I was really expecting some problems but I didn't encounter any! Before I left for work, I trimmed off the excess hardened great stuff and filled the space with putty. When I got home, I sanded it and painted it, and when the paint dried I put up the light. Over the next 2 days, I did actually paint right beside the light a few more times...just to add a few more coats. Here's what the wall looked like right before I put the fixture up:
And finally, here's the finished product!
