Dining room light is finished - 2.5 years later

Back in February 2007 we bought this old thing from ebay.

This was before we remodeled the kitchen, and we were looking for an old light to hang over the little breakfast table. I think it cost something like $30, and we figured it was worth snagging to see if we could make something of it. It turned out to be solid brass, after all.

It was missing the canopy and we wanted longer chains - so we found some square old brass chain on ebay (again) and we asked Rejuvenation to fabricate a simple canopy for us. They worked from the photos of the fixture and did a perfect job getting the scale and style right. In the meantime, we decided it wasn't the right scale for the kitchen, so we got a different (vintage) light for that spot.

Then I found a painted light shade I liked, and went on a mission for the next year or so to find a mate - similar, but not too matchy. After a while, I found one that's a great sister to the first.

Over the next 2+ years, I've been occasionally pulling this thing out, polishing a few links of chain at a time, and otherwise making extremely slow progress. With all the rain we've had this summer, polishing chain became a nightly activity (3 links per night!) and I finished the whole thing about last week.

Ken then helped me wire the fixture (I've done it before but this was complex - for me - with the two sockets). We used Sundial Wire again - good stuff. After some tribulations having to re-drill the old connectors to make the wire fit comfortably and an early-morning installation-fest, we installed the light this morning, stopped at the store to pick up two dimmable CFLs (the old light had one bulb so we needed another - but the old one was first-generation dimmable and not great; the new ones are much better, FYI) on our way home from a mid-morning meeting, and viola! We have a new, period appropriate dining room light.

And now we're selling our leftover light restoration parts on ebay. Need any square chain, anyone? It's a total bitch to polish, but it looks cool!