NOTE: I am NOT an electrician. I’m sure there is an electrician somewhere on earth reading this right now and cringing. I just like to do things myself. If you do not feel comfortable working with electricity – don’t.
I love when I find things at yard sales or thrift stores for a great price.
I found this beauty at my local goodwill for $4.99. In 2016. Good grief.
See the date above the price? Do you want to know how long it took me to change out the fixture? Three minutes. Or it would have taken me three minutes if the stupid mounting plate that was in the original fixture matched the new one. So in actuality, it took me twelve minutes to completely change the mounting plate and the fixture. This is another example of my brain convincing me that “that’s going to take forever“. Light fixtures are easy people!
Here’s what we started with. I know. That’s gross and disgusting and I should clean it. There was nothing wrong with it other than the fact that it is 23 years old – I just don’t like it.
I do like this, however. Isn’t it pretty? 
Like I said, light fixtures are easy. First things first. Before you begin dismantling your original light fixture, make sure that your breaker is off. Even if you know you turned off the correct breaker, test it out by trying to turn the light on. This is usually a quick way to make sure you turned off the correct breaker. However, for safety’s sake, you should still use a voltmeter to test the wires when you remove your original fixture before you touch them.
Then assess if your original fixture plate will fit the new fixture. Mine didn’t. To remove it, unscrew the two screws holding it to the wall. Easy. Screw the new plate to the wall in the exact same place and run the wires through and connect like with like.
I always connect the ground wires together first and wrap it around the ground screw. It’s that odd greenish blue screw.
Next, connect the white wires.
Finally the black wires. 
Place the new fixture over the protruding screws and screw them down.
Lastly, hunt down the Deep Woods Off spray so that you can sit outside and admire your new light fixture. Mosquitoes love me, unfortunately. 
You can see all of my other DIY projects with the link below. Go change a light fixture!
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