Bathroom Phase 3: Vanity Lights

Despite a lack of confidence in my abilities, I did manage to pick out a good bathroom vanity light. I'm very pleased with it!

And I felt pretty okay about my ability to install a bathroom vanity light: I knew which breaker to flip, and I have installed a new light fixture before. But what I hadn't done before was install an electrical box, and though the actual installation (of the light fixture) was pretty straightforward, the prep did involve a LOT more surprises and drywall than I had anticipated. 

As a reminder, here's the original light fixture: 

To remove a fixture like this, you have to do it in parts. First, the light-bulbs. Well, okay, no actually first is go flip the breaker, and then check to make sure the light doesn't turn on any more. Then the chrome. . . baskets? for lack of a better term. Then the fixture comes off and all that's left is the back-plate. Then you have to remove the (y'all I have no technical terms for any of this) plastic clamp-tops for all three wires. Once that's disconnected, remove the backplate from the wall. At this point you should have an electrical box in a hole in the drywall. 

Here's what I had:

I mean, I guess it's a clever workaround to the electrical code?? Or, you know, not. The wires are coming directly out of the wall into the fixture, from a tiny hole in the drywall, except that funny gouge in the drywall is actually where they threaded the wires OVER the stud in the wall to center the light. 

In terms of practicalities, I wanted the box to be between the two studs it was originally. I had been imagining I was going to have to drill a small pass-through hole in the stud to get the wires where I wanted, so in some ways this was a positive discovery?? But I had also been planning to just. . . move the current electrical box over and so this was the point where I fell down a rabbit hole of "how do I choose which kind of electrical box???" In case this is helpful to you: if you are installing a light in a wall and need an electrical box (and your wall is pre-existing) then you need an 'old-work' ceiling fixture box. There is no such thing as a round electrical box that is clearly labeled for walls. You need a ceiling box. 

I opted to cut a new hole for my electrical box, and do a patch on the drywall disaster leftover from the previous fixture. 

 

While I waited for that to dry, I also finished the drywall patches for the shower (post-to-come). Once it was. . . mostly dry, I sanded down the roughest parts and then installed the light fixture. Not much to say about the installation process: it was straightforward and easy!

And then I moved on to a kind-of spontaneous project. By spontaneous I mean I planned it last night, but had not been thinking about it prior. And I took no pictures during the process, which I actually feel bad about because I certainly could have used someone else's pictures for a guide! I changed out the light switch for a dimmer switch. (And changed the fan switch to a rocker switch, because you can't buy an outlet cover with two wide switches and one standard. Or at least, not in person at Home Depot you can't).

The dimmer switch is really straightforward to install. I picked a spendier one, because I liked the way the dimmer felt and moved, so maybe that added to the ease? It came with instructions (always a plus!) and once you remove the old switch, you cap the multi colored wire (unless you have a 3-pole), and then cap the ground wires together, and the other two remaining wires to their corresponding wires. Pretty straightforward. 

The rocker switch felt less straightforward, but once I found instructions on the internet, was also easy. For it, you just make little hooks with the wires, hook them around the screws, and tighten. I put the outlet cover on, and then spent an embarrassing amount of time playing with the dimmer.

Just "three" things left before the bathroom project is finished! Installing the vanity. Installing the baseboards. Painting the walls, ceilings, and baseboards. Remember my high school friends from December? Two just moved, and one has been saying she's gonna paint two rooms since I saw her in November. . . so we decided to be accountability partners for each other's projects. R is going to get completely unpacked. J is also getting completely unpacked, and making the kitchen in her bf's house work for her. B is going to do a major clothes and stuff purge. E is going to paint those rooms. And I am going to finish the bathroom (plus I have two "I met my goal" projects lined up). All by the end of May. (We totally got this.)