The Joy of Home Maintenance

Ah yes, the joy of home maintenance. I have a fluorescent light fixture upstairs that I have had some problems with in the past, nothing major just an inconvenience. Well, I came home Friday to find that the fluorescent lights had fallen out of the fixture – glass everywhere – my first job was to run the shop vac so that I could get to my recording equipment and get the glass off and out of it. That accomplished I thought that since the fixture was loose that I would just go ahead and replace it with a standard light fixture. So on the way home from the Saturday morning family breakfast I stopped and got a fixture and light bulbs.

After taking down the fluorescent fixture I discover that the junction box is not anchored to anything – no wonder the fixture wobbled every time a jet flew over…and the cut out for the opening was a hack job, no straight lines, jagged edges, and just enough room for the wire to come through. So now I need to square off the opening and see if there is a stud I can anchor to or one close enough to put a brace in so that I can anchor to that and put up the fixture.

I can’t complain too much, we did get a good deal on the house and it was obvious that the previous owner had added this work area over the garage himself and the room has served us well for many years…..from my son’s drum room to my studio. It just that what should have been a simple thirty minute replacement is now going to be an afternoon repair job.