I've Got Holes..In Different Area Codes

Last week I had a couple of days off during the week which really helped me get started on my to-do list for the weekend. I had planned on getting quite a few things done around the house which were really going to take up the entire 2 days from starting the projects to finally getting them completed.

Even though it was GORGEOUS outside and I would have much more preferred to lay my ass outside on my chaise- I got to it first thing Thursday. Well, after I slept in and had a yummy breakfast that is. Number one on the project list was taking the lights in the two bathrooms back down as I discussed here so that I could patch up the holes left by the builders from the original lights. The upstairs hall bathroom was going to be the big project since I was planning on re-painting it afterwards (which I still haven’t done). Downstairs should have been the easy, quick fix since I was just patching the drywall and then doing a little bit of touch up paint.

Did you catch the “should have been” part? Well. Me and my ever unsatisfied self here. The whole debacle of purchasing the 3 matching lights for all of the bathrooms still had me in a funk. Since the original purchased light didn’t fit because in that room I only have 7 foot ceilings and not 8 foot and where the hole and wiring were located the light fixture didn’t fit. Ugh. So I had to return it and get a new light. I was OK with that light- not in LURRRRV with it.

{old light}

Well….. after hearing Jon in my head telling me to just cut a new hole in the drywall and move the light lower I decided that was what I was going to do. I mean, since I’m already having to take down the light and patch a hole why not patch that entire hole and make a new one? Made sense. And since I kept putting the box for the light in the trash and then on trash day taking it back out, I knew in my heart that I really didn’t want this light fixture in that bathroom. So…..I repackaged it and headed over to Home Depot to get the original new light fixture and a sheet of drywall. This is why I am a receipt hoarder people.

Luckily for me they had a 2 X 2 piece of drywall so I picked that up- even though that bitch was pretty much the same price as an entire 8 foot sheet. I got robbed. But I didn’t really need an entire sheet so I just bit the bullet. Then I grabbed a drywall knife and headed back home.

I started by measuring for the new hole and traced the base of the light onto the wall below the original hole, making sure that I had enough height above for the light to fit. 

Then I took out the bracket and traced that inside the base square, making sure it was even.

Then came the part that I was a little bit nervous about.  I couldn't believe that I was actually going to cut into my perfectly nice wall.  Intentionally.  What if I screwed it up?  

Then using a left over 1 X 2 piece of wood I put a couple of pieces behind the drywall and screwed them in. Some of you didn’t understand why I did this the last time so here it is. The reason why I do this is because there is no “box”behind the wall which is normally attached to a stud, holding the weight of the light fixture rather than the drywall holding it. So you put the wood back there as a make-shift stud and attach the light fixture to the wood. That way, it holds the weight of the light fixture so it doesn’t come crashing down because the drywall couldn’t hold it. After I did that I pulled the wire out of the original hole and fed it through to the new hole. Easy peasy.

Next I used the drywall knife to make the original hole into a square and measured it for a new piece of drywall. Once I had the measurements I took my new piece of drywall and made a fucking mess the cut and put it in the old hole. SN- I’m wondering how many times I can say hole in this post.

Once that piece was in place, I screwed it into the wood and got out my hot pink spackle and covered up the edges and screws so that it was flush with the wall surrounding it. 

Then it was time to have lunch and wait for the spackle to dry. A couple hours later I headed back into the bathroom to make sure it was dry, sanded it down and applied another coat. Then I headed upstairs to start on that bathroom. Basically it was the same steps except I used the existing hole and just cut a small piece to attach to the side of the hole because it was wider than the base of the light. Once I attached it and spackled it, I waited. And waited. And waited some more. It was like watching water boil. Although that takes a LOT less time. Ugh. But it was all good since it was Red Sox opening day and they were actually airing the game out here. Wicked awesome. Although we lost. So it was more like wicked pissa.

Finally after the spackle

Here’s what they look like now. MUCH better! And you can’t even tell that it’s a patch-up job! I’m totally patting myself on the back here if you couldn't tell.  

{upstairs}

{downstairs}

And now all three of my bathroom light are the same.  You know how I love me some "matchy-matchy" like a mutha.