Never Again (ok...maybe one more time)

So I "won" this vintage Italian Tole chandelier from an ebay auction back in January...my high bid was $79 plus the $25 in shipping. Tom told me he could re-wire it (mainly due to the fact that the main wire was much shorter than the chain)...but it sat there through January, it sat there through February...he bought lamp wiring...but it sat there some more. Finally one evening I plopped the chandelier down in front of him and demanded to know what he was going to do about it. He told me he wasn't sure he could do it so I should bring it to The Lamp Menders in Minneapolis (wow, really? you tell me that now). So The Lamp Menders replaced the main wire and all five sockets for $136 bringing my total to $240.00. Tom planned on hanging it on Saturday but we had too much running to do so he PROMISED Sunday would be the big day.

And he made good on his promise...but not without him seriously wanting to kill me. Listen to this: So Sunday morning about 8:30 he starts working but discovers the "black" and "white" wires weren't marked so we drive to Home Depot. We were told by a lighting "expert" (I use that term loosely) to buy this $17 gadget...got home, it didn't work. Went back to Home Depot, found a different lighting expert who actually knew what he was talking about. Told us how to LOOK at the wires to tell which was which. Got back home, work a little more, find that the screw (or as the lighting people call it, "nipple") from our fixture we were replacing was smaller than that needed for the vintage chandelier. Tom went back to Home Depot, replaced the bracket to fit the bigger screw that he also got a home depot. We got the chandelier up, tested it then held the base up to the ceiling to find that the base didn't cover the hole. I went back to Home Depot to buy a medallian. They only had white so I found my ivory spray paint but it was out in the 30 degree garage so I had to wait an hour for the paint to warm up, got high in the basement spraying the medallian and now we're SURE we're good to go...no more trips to the hardware store!

We take the chandelier back down, string the painted medallian, make sure the hole is covered, connect the wires, test to make sure it works, start to screw in the base...only to find that the new screw is not long enough for the darn vintage base thats about 3 inches deep (refer back to pic 1 to see the pretty scalloped base). So down it comes...again...and by this time Tom wants to throw the darn thing out the window (and me with it.) We already know that Home Depot doesn't have a long enough screw so we try Menards...no luck...they just don't make the 1/4" screws (nipples) anymore, they're all 1/8". As a last resort we head to our local Frattalone's Ace Hardware and they actually have another 1/4" screw the same length as the one we got at Home Depot BUT they have a little coupling that hooks the two together and VIOLA! We now have one that's long enough and that pesky (but pretty) vintage chandelier finally gets hung at 3:30. I don't know why Tom was so upset...it only took 7 hours and 6 trips to various hardware stores.

Final cost of the $79 chandelier = $302.00 (and almost my marriage)

Moral of the story = Don't buy a friggin' vintage chandelier (ok...maybe one more, just don't tell Tom)