Since we had our house repainted it looks so fresh and new. I noticed not long ago that our outdoor light fixtures were looking a bit beat up and old. At our old house we only had one outdoor fixture and after about 9 years we replaced it with a much nicer one that my mom gave to us but this time that wasn't in the budget and we would have needed three
of them. The ones on the house are nice ones, they are a decent size and are metal and glass instead of plastic so I decided I would touch them up rather than try and replace them. This morning Peter cut the breaker and we pulled them all down. I took them inside and completely took them apart and then cleaned them thoroughly with mineral spirits. I took the metal pieces out back and laid them on a large piece of craft
paper and proceeded to spray paint them with some good hammered metal paint that matched our facia. After an hour or so I applied a second coat and then just before the first few drops started to fall Peter and I brought all the parts inside. The first lamp went back together with little effort but the second and third weren't so nice. I was able to get just about all of it together but when it was time to put the lids on them there was one screw out of 6 on each of them that wouldn't fit into the last hole. I tried for about an hour, taking them back apart and starting
over, switching out a piece here and there to see if it help but I couldn't get it. Finally, I called to Peter who came and tried for a good 20 more minutes. At one point he said, "How much is it to just buy new ones?". I really didn't want to spend money on new ones, especially after I had already done all the work to make these ones new again so I took one of the lamps and pushed until the screw
finally went in the hole. The problem was that the way they are set up when we pushed on them it felt like and sounded like we were going to break one of the glass panes but the way I saw it, if we were going to buy new ones anyhow I could risk breaking the pane. Luckily that didn't happen and after I forced the first lamp into place Peter got the next one. Finally, we took them back out front and hung them back in place. They do look so much better but I have no plans to do that again for a very long time.
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