The beast is up

Well now that the holiday season is over I can actually get back to projects around the house. The big chandelier is all done and ready to be hung in the stairway.   If you forgot all the hard work I put into polishing this beast and putting all the pieces together here is that post:  Polishing the Chandelier

Here is the chandelier all done in the shop perfectly wired and put back together.  Here you can see the gas candle sleeves and bobeches on the candelabra part and the beautiful green opalescent stalactite shades which match and fir perfectly.

While the chandelier was in the shop I had to do a little work behind the scenes.  The chandelier hangs in my two story staircase which is quite high up and impossible to reach even via a ladder in spots.  I knew that this would make it virtually impossible to change light bulbs and clean it once it was up.  I also intend to use this space for a dual purpose.  The top of the stairway is a large landing with room for a sofa and lamp.  I have this huge wall on the stairs which has no window.  So I thought it would be fun if I used this space for a little informal home theatre.  What I intend to do is buy a projector and project movies on the large wall and probably just hang a white sheet for the screen when I use it.  Because of this I would also need the chandelier to be out of the way from the sofa to the screen area.  So I decided on installing a chandelier hoist lift to accomplish both challenges. 

After doing a bit of research and intense thinking I found a hoist off EBay that would fit perfectly.  The hoist fit between the floor joists of the ceiling and I already had the wiring. It was simply a matter of putting it in and viola, I was done.  Not so fast.  I had to not only center the hoist in the ceiling so that it would look visually right, but I also had to make sure this massive chandelier would fit down far enough to reach and that would require it to fit in a space between the railings.  I made a large cardboard cutout of the diameter of the chandelier and with this I was able to determine the right placement for the hoist so that it would lower effortlessly into this tight space.

After putting it all in I used a ceiling medallion to hide the motor and cap off the space.  I cut the hole of the medallion just slightly larger than the ring that comes down just to be safe.  The ring which is attached to the wire is where you attach the chandelier and you also wire the fixture to.  It's pretty slick, when you lower the light it disconnects the power and you're safe to do whatever and once the round disk meets the motor and rises all the way up, the lights come back on.

So I got the fixture hung and tested the lift to make sure that everything would be perfect and that the chandelier would fit down in the tight space when lowered.  When the time came I lowered it all the way down and it fit perfectly. Success! 

I also used Edison style bulbs to give a beautiful golden hue.  I cannot believe how beautiful it looks not only inside, but from outside on a dark night.  After all the years of waiting to find a fixture and all the work it took to polish and find all the glass for this piece I think it was worth it!

Now onto some carpentry, a TON of wood refinishing and see that rectangle window with no curtain and looking a little off?  Well that is where a stained glass window will go.  This will be designed and installed hopefully this winter.