Restoring the Original Light Fixtures: Part 2

I thought it would be a nice thing to post pictures of my process in case someone searching how to rewire lights stumbles across our blog. In particular this would apply to rewiring a table lamp, because I'm using the rayon cord and I don't show the ground wire. It is a very simple process and something anyone who is minimally handy can do. For those of you not interested, this is probably really boring. ;)



DISCLAIMER: I am not an electrician. I am rewiring our lights as a hobby. Please take on electrical projects at your own risk! Do your research. One thing to consider is that old fixtures are often not originally equipped with a ground wire. For safety purposes, a ground wire was added to our lights when they were installed (not pictured). If there is ever an electrical short in a metal fixture, it could become electrified and shock/harm a person who touches it (the person being the shortest path to the ground). Many everyday objects like table lamps, alarm clocks, toasters, etc don't have a ground (think two-prong vs 3-pronged plug). Hardwired fixtures should always be grounded.



So.... you may remember that a while ago I posted about the cleaning and paint removal from the original antique light fixtures in our house. First I removed all the old 1920s cloth wiring and stripped the paint off the brass. Antique looking parts are not hardware store material, so I had to order everything online. I bought almost all the replacement lamp parts from Grand Brass . I also got some brass darkening solution from Architecturals to patina the new brass fitter. A side note about buying lamp stuff online: I was thrilled to find a mogul socket reducer *geek* which makes it possible to use a standard light bulb in an antique lamp with a oversized mogul socket. I own two mogul floor lamps and the oversized bulbs are hard to find and are usually a bright 100 watts.

Originally I was thinking I might be able to reuse the original ceramic interior sockets (called fatboys because they are bigger than modern sockets). Some of them were quite corroded, so I decided to replace the interiors with modern parts and reuse the original exteriors for looks. I was able to find interior sockets with antique looking turn-key knobs, so they look pretty original! (I'm not throwing away the old ceramic sockets because I hate to discard anything original. They will just serve as art).

Side note: Modern hardwired fixtures often don't have a knob on the socket because they are controlled by a wall switch. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to have knobs on my pendants but it's how it was done in the 1920s. Knobs on the pan chandeliers are actually useful because you can turn a few bulbs off for a makeshift dimmer.

Here is the basic order:
Old fixture, new wire, old fitter (aka shade holder), old exterior socket top, new cardboard insulator disc, new interior socket, new cardboard insulator, old exterior socket.



Here is a close up of the rayon wire. Inside the black and white rayon is a modern plastic coated wire. Most people would not go through the trouble of using cloth covered wire since these hang from the ceiling (rayon wire is usually used for table lamps), but we wanted to keep the look authentic.



Plain plastic lamp wire is easier to work with than this rayon covered plastic wire. I wasn't sure how the pros keep keep the rayon from unraveling, so I improvised by covering the ends of each wire with electrical tape. This will get brittle over time, but it's not serving an electrical function, it's just keeping the rayon from moving around.

At this point, the wire has been threaded through the end of the fixture chain, the fitter, the top of the exterior socket and the paper disc and I'm ready to attach it to the interior socket. This picture shows an "underwriter's knot". This knot prevents the wires from slipping off the screws if someone accidently yanks on the cord (standard wiring process).



Screw the wires onto the socket. Standard process is that black is hot so it goes on the gold screw. White is neutral and goes on the silver.



Once the socket is wired, you slide the cardboard insulator over it, ensuring to cover the screws so they don't short out on the exterior socket.



Then you slide the exterior socket over that, and it's ready to pop together with the top of the exterior socket.



Now it's time to screw the socket to the fixture chain end. I have not laced the other end of the wire up through the chain yet. This is because you want the wire to be free to twist with the socket at this time. The fitter gets turned too because the knob is sticking out the side.



Lace the wire up the chain after it's all screwed together and it's finished! I tested each lamp by jerry-rigging a plug by splicing the wires to a plug from a strand of Christmas lights. Yay, it works!



One finished pendant.



The finished bathroom sconce.



Next up... the Pan Chandeliers



The pan chandelier is basically four pendant lamps that are wired together. I wired each socket, then laced the wires up into the pan.

There is an additional length of wire that is laced down one of the chains from the ceiling. You attach all four lamp wires to this one wire.



Separate all the black wires from the white wires. (Note: It is recommended to use a heavier gauge wire if doing this sort of thing to a chandelier with lots of lights)



Twist the black wires all together and join them with a wire connector. This connection ensures that each bulb is connected to the main power, so all bulbs will work even if one burns out.



Lay the wires down in the pan so they are not visible when the chandelier is hanging.



TADA!

Along with a few other replacement parts the whole thing cost less than $100 to clean and rewire all the lamps. They are safe, they function, and they look a helluva lot better. We'll post pictures of them installed once the house is cleaned up and we put the pretty glass shades on!

Trim, Cabinet Progress and Interior Paint

Happy Holidays! We haven't posted in a while, so I wanted to get some updated pics on here. There has been some behind the scenes stuff happening, like redoing our entire electrical system, but that doesn't make for good pictures. The biggest visible changes since last post are the custom made trim to match the old craftsman trim in the rest of the house, progress on the cabinets & built-ins, and first pass interior painting.

Check out our awesome new built-in bookcase and window seat in our new master bedroom:
The back surfaces of the bookcases are beadboard paneled and since you couldn't really see it in the previous picture, I threw in the pic below. They still need to build the cabinet doors and drawers for the bottom, but they are working on that right now.

French doors with trim. They still need to be painted brown to match the other doors in the house and there will be a dummy knob on the other door, as well as old fashion surface bolts.
Again, it's hard to get pictures of the walk-in closet, but you can kinda see the rod and shelf setup we have going on:
A view from inside the closet looking out into the bedroom:
They started building the vanity and installed the custom made medicine cabinets that match our window trim. I was able to find someone on the internet that made the medicine cabinets exactly to my specs for much cheaper than it would cost buy premade similar medicine cabinets from a store.
There is still plenty more things to be done in here, but it's exciting to see the rough in.
They put up the subway tile in the master shower (still needs grout)...and also installed the beadboard wainscoting around the walls. (this picture was taken before they started building the vanity).
A shot looking the other direction of the tile in the shower and trim work around the door. We scored the doors for the master bathroom and closet on the cheap from habitat for humanity's salvage shop. They will be painted brown to match the rest of the doors in the house. Another bonus to getting actual vintage doors rather than replicas is that they were already set up for old fashion mortise locks! I bought some old doorknobs, backplates and mortise locks that match all the rest of the ones in the house on craigslist for cheap too!
Here's where the master throne will go...

The back end of the hallway with the old backdoor we reused and the beautiful antique transom window I found from an antique shop online. All the glass in the door and transom really help bring light into the hallway. The wood flooring still needs to be laid at this end of the hallway.
The new double doors we added to the laundry cove...These are the only brand new doors we got for the entire project! The antique doorknobs we got at a great store in Durham that has tons of salvaged home parts from old houses. Unfortunately they went out of business, but we were able to take advantage of their going out of business sale when buying these knobs.
A pic with the double doors swung open. Our stacked washer and dryer will go in here. There is not much room for anything else, but we crammed a few small shelves on the right side there for detergent, dryer sheets, etc.
Here is our redone linen closet/built-in cabinet. I designed it to incorporate the hvac return that we are moving from the floor there in front of it. Still needs some more shelves and doors built. The walls also haven't been painted the right color in here yet.
The existing bath that we added beadboard wainscoting to and also repainted with this soothing white and green palette. If you'll recall the easter egg colors it used to be painted, this is much nicer. The tub is still purple and yellow, but it will be painted white soon.
medicine cabinet side, where we are installing a pedestal sink:

Here is the living room painted a nice mellow yellow shade. ;)
We went with a semi-rich tint for the dining room. Since a dining room is a bit more formal of a space, we thought this medium tone brown/tan would be elegant, without being too overpowering.
And the kitchen is being built as we speak. This first picture show a sweet antique built-in cabinet the fits perfectly in that space. Kate stripped the old peeling paint off it, so we can either do a wash of paint or a solid repaint. It's not totally decided yet.
Stove side with a lazy susan in the corner base cabinet:
The upper cabinets will have glass doors on the large sections. We also really want to make the cabinets feel more like part of the room than just a box tacked on the wall. So we designed them to be closed soffit, going all the way to the ceiling. We added crown molding around the perimeter of the kitchen to help tie in the cabinets more as well.
Standing in the pantry taking this picture:

Our electrical service is being upgraded. Yay for meeting safety code!

Below is a pile of junk we found scattered throughout the yard. There was actually way more than this but it already made it to the dumpster before I took this photo.
Just the back of the house again. Not much has changed here since the last post, except for the back door being added, the trees loosing their leaves and the pile of junk at the bottom of the stairs.
We're in the home stretch, so check back for photos of the finished product! :D

If these walls could talk......

...they better say thier favorite color is yellow. ;)
another view showing the exterior paint on the addition. It seamlessly blends into the old paint about halfway down the side of the house:
In this shot from standing on the deck you can see the old part of the house (back kitchen wall) on the right, and the new construction (master bedroom) on the left. You can't even tell the difference really:

And we have dry wall in the addition! The hardwood flooring is laid too!
Master bathroom door on the left and walk-in closet on the right:

The window in the master bathroom:
Where the vanity will go:
Tub alcove:
view from the other side:
Below is just a shot of the the master bath floor so you can see a comparison once the tile is laid:
It's hard to get a good shot of the walk-in closet. This about the best I could get. :P
A view standing by the master bedroom door looking down the hallway towards the center of the house. The laundry cove is on the right there and the door to the middle bedroom on the left:

Standing in the doorway of the middle bedroom looking across the hall to the laundry:

They sheetrocked over all the ceilings in the house as well. The paint color in the central hub makes it easy to see where they taped and mudded the edges where the new sheetrock ceilings meet the old plaster walls:Dunce toilet is in time out. haha. ;)

I know it's not really exciting to look at a bunch of pictures of ceilings, so I won't post every room. But it's exciting to us because of the state the old ceiling were in. If you'll recall these pics from the first post (example 1 & example 2). So anyway, here's just a few shots of the new ceilings...starting with the dining room:

Kitchen ceiling. This picture makes the ceiling appear low, but it's actually 9 ft:

Existing bath....this ceiling used to be pastel green (I can't wait till we can wrangle the rest of the easter egg colors in here too)....

And one last ceiling pic of the living room:If you'll recall the living room used to be green, but now it's just gray because they sanded down peeling paint, taped over settling cracks and skim coated mudding over most of the plaster walls in the house. (They'll be painting all the interiors soon, so stay tuned for pictures with all our new colors).

Just a view looking at some construction materials on the floor of the living room, through the dining room, on towards the breakfast nook and the kitchen all the way in the back there:

A view of the other direction from the breakfast nook looking towards the front of the house: