Replacing The Entry Light

"That's just a 15 minute job," said She Who Must Be Obeyed.

Only for someone who has never done it.

The light bulb in the front entry burned out. As the fixture looked pretty bad (it appeared to be a painted metal housing that had long ago lost its glass shade), we decided to replace the fixture rather than just the bulb. We went to Creative Lighting and found a nice fixture that seemed to be the right style and scale. After we got it home we (read I) started on the "15 minute job".

I got up on the ladder and removed the old bulb. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the metal housing wasn't mounted in the expected way - it was held to the ceiling by 2 drywall screws. I should have known right then... I removed the screws and took down the housing to find... a ceramic base screwed into the lath. Now, a single screw can hold a 4 ounce ceramic base, but it's not going to hold up a 15 pound light fixture. Of course, there's no junction box up there either. So, I enlarge the hole so I can put a junction box up there and ... a miracle occurs - the joist is right above the hole. I run down to the basement to look for a junction box and ... another miracle occurs - I have junction box that is *exactly* the right depth to reach from the joist to the surface of the plaster. All I have to do is cut off the mounting ears so it fits through the hole. Actually, everything went surprisingly well and it only took half a day, but now She thinks we'll get lucky and everything will be this easy...