Our first DIY

Hi There… This is our very first DIY post and it’s kind of terrifying. SO many good blogs out there, how do we make this one our very own? Jump in both feet, be yourself… The only way we know how.

This post is dedicated to a very good friend of ours, Dwight. He has just recently passed away. While this may seem morbid I feel compelled to pay my respects to him in this way.

Only one week older than me his passing gave me yet another “sign” that life is very short, too short to not be doing what you love, so here I am, doing what I love. He was a base (military) brat and we grew up together,  us brats have been compared to Dandelions…

photo credit: geezaweezer via photopin cc

“We don’t have fewer “roots” than peers who grew up in one place. It’s just that our roots grow wide rather than deep, and they sprout quickly where ever we land!”

~ unknown

He had a great love of all things vintage and antique, he was a great Junk hunter <3!  Lastly, the actual item that we are refurbishing was given to us by Dwight. I hope you like our first DIY post, simple yes, but very personal…

This is a vintage space heater, for the table… We’re making it into a wall sconce!

Why did I want to mess with this pretty thing? Well it doesn’t have a cage on the front where the heating bulb goes, the wiring has been spliced and a new (well an old really) piece was added. Untrustworthy! I got the idea to hang it as a sconce from the mounting hole on the base plate.

What needs to be done? New wiring, we aren’t going to hard wire this, so the cord will remain as is ref the location of it coming out of the back dome… I move things around so much, it’s easier to explain a screw hole to Bud rather than a hard wire… 😉

First step, what do I need to make this safe? New cord and new innards… Innards? The porcelain thingy the light bulb screws into. (I never promised to be technical with my DIY descriptions)

I unscrewed the gold back dome where the brown wire is coming out, this released the porcelain insert (innards) inside the lamp. Off to Home Depot to find replacement innards and a 6′ lamp cord, that’s it, very simple…

Not so simple after all! of course this being a vintage piece there were no replacement pieces at Home Depot, great! Other than the brown 6′ cord that is…

I talked to the electrical expert at the store and he inspected the porcelain piece for me, good news! He said he’d feel confident to use this in his own home, all he was recommending was a fine grit sanding pad to clean it up a bit and improve connectivity. That I can do!!

As you can see it’s pretty dirty, but all of the metal attached to the porcelain was sturdy, according to the Home Depot guy… Let me clarify, this expert was an older gentleman, full time, not a part time weekend kid… Wanted to mention that…

Okay, so the porcelain is cleaned the new wire is installed and my new (low wattage) Edison bulb is in… Drum roll…

I just hid the cord behind the base and behind the mirror… it’s easily unplugged at the outlet source, but the switch can also be made accessible. I chose to hide it all…

                 Thanks Dwight, she looks real pretty!