Thursday, February 9, 2012

Our New Kitchen Light -- Linear Crystal Chandelier

Our new kitchen light is installed as of last weekend!  Seems like it has been a long time since we first ordered it, but unfortunately the first one arrived with a cracked end cap and had to be returned.  In the meantime, when we opened and inspected the original package, we found the instructions contained to be quite inadequate -- this is all that was included:

We especially appreciated  #4 "Let the children not touch the electric parts of this lamp for the safety."


While we had been thinking about installing the light ourselves, these instructions made us feel a little more dubious.  You notice that nowhere in the instructions does it actually tell you HOW to install it... By the time the replacement fixture arrived, I had a couple of electricians names on hand -- licensed and insured contractors with recommendations.  The replacement arrived the day before our trip to Toronto, Canada for a hockey tournament for our younger son.  We didn't have a chance to open it -- just left the box, which looked in good shape at least, in the corner of the living room out of the way. Finally home, we then had the idea to try it ourselves again, using the electrician as a backup, if necessary.  Brian has installed many lights for us over the years and is familiar with doing this sort of thing, and thought he could do it. I was worried about getting it straight -- very important as it is a linear light, and was going to be seen directly from the front door. Visions of crooked Christmas trees past kept coming to mind....Finally had a nice day to do it with a stretch of a few hours, just in case... Then another concern, as we pulled out the wires, and saw no color coding on them -- usually you get a black and a white at least -- black for Live and White for Neutral.  Finally Brian noticed a very tiny L on one wire and a very tiny N on another wire -- Live and Neutral -- something we could work with!  There was an extra wire that we capped (wasn't sure what that was for as there was a separate grounding wire, maybe just another grounding wire...)  Anyway, we got it up, it worked and was straight as a pin!  I spent the rest of the time arranging the crystals.  Here is a picture with the light on and looking just as I had imagined it!