Last evening I noticed that the kitchen was a bit dimmer than usual, so I made a mental note to try to check the stupid light fixture this morning. I did so by rearranging some items on my counter so they would remind me. 

It worked.

The stupid light fixture was mounted on the ceiling in the kitchen, so I used my trusty step stool to reach it. It took me a few moments to figure out how to remove the cover. It was fastened by three round nuts that in theory could be removed just by twisting with the fingers but in practice only one came off that way. I needed a pliers for the other two.

Once the nuts were off, it still took a bit of force to remove the cover which was held in place by long slender screws clinging to the metal frame that held the glass cover. Once I got that off, I was able to change the burnt out light bulb. For good measure I replaced both of them. With LED bulbs, so they should last a lot longer. Oh, and I upped the brightness while I was at it.

But by then my arms were tired from stretching so far up for so long that I knew I’d never be able to replace the cover as it would take some maneuvering to get the metal frame back on those screws while holding the glass cover in place, and I knew my stretched out arms weren’t up for the task.

After thinking it over for a bit, I realized I could push my kitchen island underneath the stupid light fixture and stand on it. After removing all the items on it, of course.

And that’s what I did.

It was a great idea because standing on that island put me at just the right height to work with the stupid light fixture. I was able with some trouble to get the metal frame back on the screws and tighten two of the nuts. The third screw, however, remained stubbornly resistant to my efforts to get it to pop thorough the hole, and I didn’t want to apply too much pressure for fear of breaking the glass cover or knocking the fixture off the ceiling.

As it seemed pretty stable with two screws securely fastened, I left the stupid light fixture in that condition and decided to replace it at my earliest convince for one that is better designed.

It will go on the list with other electrical work that I want done around the house.

Postscript: I just searched Amazon for ceiling mount light fixtures and their top seller is basically the same thing that I have. No link. I don’t want to encourage them.