Let there be light.

Builder grade light fixtures can be hit or miss. Luckily for us, most of ours are a hit-- but the dining room light was a big. fat. miss.

Exhibit A:

With Casa Willi's impending holiday debut, we needed to fix the fug, stat. Of course it didn't have to be a rush job, considering I bought the light fixture way back in May.

First things first. Remove the original fixture. Not as easy as it sounds.

After far longer than we care to admit, we could finally get to work. 

Apparently, West Elm thinks we're electricians, because they gave us a lamp with a plug and wires we needed to remove... and not the most specific installation instructions.

Despite my frustrations, I got a little wire cutting and stripping happy-- if that's even a thing. 

This little do-hickey and the screw inside are the only thing that keep the fixture holding on. Suspension wires are the bomb. After figuring out which wires belonged together, and cutting and wrapping at just.the.right.height, we were ready.

Two screws on the outside to set it into place...

After a couple hours, we finally got the sucker up! It's true what they say-- a couple that installs light fixtures together, stays together {if they don't say that, they will now}. 

I love you, West Elm-- but you need to seriously reconsider your installation instructions. For two very smart {and clearly modest} people, we had quite a time with this little job. I suppose this was all just a sign that I need to keep on the grind if I'm ever going to be a bonafide DIY diva!