Let there be light...sort of

One blessed day about a month ago, the horrible florescent light fixture in my kitchen stopped working. It was funny because my husband had just talked me out of replacing it two weeks prior when a bulb went out and I shopped online for a new fixture.

We had to have some sort of light while I looked for what I wanted. so this is the klassy set up I had for a few weeks.

Just one light bulb hanging from a few wires. *sigh*

Running extra wiring and tearing up the ceiling to do it was not high on our list so a multi-bulb fixture was a must. The kitchen has 9 foot ceilings but the height was also a consideration. We toyed with a mix of can lights and pendant but ended up settling on the Eldridge from Ballard designs.

The idea of spending hundreds just before the holiday did not sit well with me  but I could not deal with the "Shantytown special" light hanging from a wire.

The light from Ballard was back ordered and it took about three weeks to get the refrigerator sized box.

I was excited. "Can I play with it?! Huh, huh? will you put it together? C'mon! I wanna play!!!!"

We have replaced several of the ugly builder light fixtures but it has been some time since I had the excitement of a new fixture.

Huge and heavy, I needed my husband and two teenaged sons to put it up. It turned out to be a very balmy December day and I had my little girl outside playing with some neighborhood kids while the light went up.

Grrr. Errant pane of glass held in place with electrical tape.

I came in to look at it in all its fingerprinted glory and noticed that a pane of glass was teetering and out of its clips. My question, "How in the heck did you get the thing up without noticing?"

 Teenager.

It turns out that the glass could not be easily put back in place so the whole thing had to come down and go back to Ballard.

Back to the "Shantytown special".

Ballard was good with the return, sending a new one and sending the UPS man to pickup the old one. They did not, however, realize that we still had the thing hanging up and it would take some time to get packed up. so when the UPS guy arrived five minutes later I had to explain.

New light arrived and a few days passed. Finally, up it went and with much greater ease. I hear.

I have several final thoughts.

 I thought I would be OK without the Edison bulbs and now I think I need them. Secondly, the quality of the fixture is second rate. I have other things from Ballard that I liked but have heard a few complaints about their upholstered pieces.

The glass on mine has a few small scratches and the directions that come with it are laughable in their error. 

At $400 it is not insanely expensive but it is still $400. If I was going to do it over I would not buy this.