December 6, 2015

Hubby has been hacking Ikea

When we moved into this house 15 years ago,
the lamps in bathroom was these:
Actually these lamps was also in hallway, vestibule and back in area,
where is f.e water heater.
Lamps might be practical,but. 
They are ugly.
The metallic bottom of the lamp is quite large,

but luckily the holes in the ceiling weren't that big in hallway or vestibule,
so it was quite easy to replace them with new ones.
And of course to hall and vestibule didn't need any moisture protection.
But lamps at bathroom weren't that simple.
Models of lamps with moisture protection seemed to be all boring.
And if I found something from internet,
the price was way out of the budget.
Finally we bought these ones:
Simple, plain. and moisture protected.
And expensive.
Both to buy and use.
They had halogens, 40W each
- so when lights were on,
it was 12*40W...
And needed to chance at least once a year,
so the cost buying new ones was about 42 €.
Light they gave was excellent,
Until they one after an other burned.
We simply just got enough.
First we try to find suitable led.
10 €/piece.
Hubby said right away,
that he won't pay that much -not even close.
Then we got a tip,
that Ikea has cheaper ones.
Wohoo, had to make quick thinking,
what else I  might need (or want),
if I get a chance :-)

Unfortunately those were sold out.
And it was sure,
that Hubby wouldn't drive over there within few weeks again,
so we needed an other solution.
I proposed Lillholmen,
but wasn't sure if their base would be large enough.
Hubby made a quick decision:
we will take them.
So we headed home with three Lillholmen lamps.
(And several small things I managed to capture during the run through the store)

When Hubby took the first lamp down from ceiling,
it was clear,
that the base of Lillholmen would be way too small to cover the hole.
It had clearly been the one reason,
which made finding lamps hard earlier.
We just didn't remember
- and didn't check it before buying new ones now.
Not very wise.
Gladly Hubby is handy.
He found out the solution:
we would use the old base and put Lillholmens on them.
Several supplies and tools were needed,
when he dismantled the old lamps apart,
and made a hole in the middle of the base for wires.
There were holes in corners,
that needed to cover,
so he just turned bases of the lamps upside down.
And up on the ceiling:
Doing this wasn't very fast,
it took several hours with each.
And he got help from electrician to make sure,
that there won't be any mistakes with wires.
All three lamps are up,
light with led is warm,
and not as bright as it was with halogens.
But I don't mind:
warmer light flatters reflection in the mirror...

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