Enlightenment

One of the things I'm hoping to do this fall is freshen up front of the house.  The walkway, as previously discussed, needs a serious do-over.  But there are also little details.  Things like adding mums to the stoop for fall (I gave in and bought some gorgeous red ones last week).  Things like the entry light.

The light fixture on the exterior of the house appears to have been installed when the house was originally built, back in the 70's.  Stylistically, it's not really a bad piece, but I was originally thinking that it would require replacing because it was absolutely disgusting.

 

See what I mean?  That white patchy coating did not come off when I tried to scrub it - I don't even know what it is and I don't want to know.  Looks kind of like a hunk of junk here.  But then I got to thinking....if I can give a rusty, revolting mailbox new life with a coat of paint, why not a light fixture?  Albeit without the vinyl decals this time, admittedly.


So that became the new plan.  First I removed the wire attached to the fixture (see top right), which as far as I could tell served absolutely no purpose at all.  Then my helpful husband figured out which fuse controlled the fixture and turned it off for me so as to prevent accidental electrocution.  Details.  Next, I took all the pieces apart, unscrewed it from the wall, and cleaned it out.  This took quite a while, as there were about thirty years of dusty dead bug bits inside.

Next, I brought out the matte black spray paint and went to town, after carefully taping off the wires and the socket first.  Looking better already, no?  In taking it apart I discovered that the windows were plastic and not glass, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I can replace those down the road.  You can find just about anything on the internet, right?

And here is my finished product on the right, side-by-side with the unpainted version.  Looks a million times better and it didn't cost me a dime!