Fabulous, clever AND handy!

That's how I felt this morning at about 11:10am. 

I took the Little Boy to preschool then went to Orange to look at some options for a project I've been mulling over for a few days now (you'll see...eventually).  I didn't find what I really wanted, but I did figure some things out, so yay for my big brain.

Lately when I'm at a DIY store I've added 'cruising the lighting area' to my usual rounds (Flooring, rugs, the oops paint pile, clearance lumber, and that damned 569$ beautiful sliding compound miter saw that had me at 'hello').  Today I decided to just DO SOMETHING with the hideous kitchen island lighting.  Husbeast is 6'4" and always bangs his head on it (seriously...we've lived here nearly 3 years and he somehow forgets weekly that there's a light there?  But he can remember every exact detail of the first time he saw Raiders or Star Wars.) 

After Husbeast and I talking about this light off and on over the past 34 months I knew we both could agree on brushed or satin nickel finish, really plain/simple.  He wanted something pretty much flush to the ceiling, I would LOVE pendants.  So whatever....I picked a light I could live with and away I went.

This is the monstrosity.  We both loathe it so much I think it's only been cleaned once.  It's so ugly it pains us to look upon it.  I'm SO selling it on CL for 25$ :) 

The hardest part was getting the old fixture down.  There wasn't a screw or anything that I could find.  I finally realised that part of the decorative brass crappy crap was actually a giant screw.  Once I found some pliers I made short work of it. 

Mounting bracket is up.  I would only have one dislike with this light, and it's that the mounting screws to attach the light to the bracket should really be offset a bit, because of how they're attached together.  Makes it fiddley to line up.

Installation was really a snap.  Came with the wire nuts, etc.  The most difficult part at this point was balancing the fixture on my left shoulder & head so I could use 2 hands to tighten the wire nuts and then push everything up into the ceiling past the bracket.  I always attach the ground first because I figure if it slips at this point the ground wire will probably save it from smashing on the floor.  I haven't actually had to test this theory yet, knock on wood.

SO chuffed!  Not a single issue with the connections.  Start to finish was 25 minutes, including removal of the old fixture and all the messing around trying to remove it.

Fabulous, clever AND handy, yep ;)  Maybe this will be a happy early father's day present for the beast?

But, now I need to find one for above the kitchen table!

/ETA - when the Little Boy got home from preschool and saw it the first thing he said after 'wow!' was 'Now Daddy won't hit his head anymore!'

/ETA2 - This is the fixture.  I can't get over how much light it adds and how it opens up the kitchen.