Obviously, some home repair/improvement projects are best left to the professionals, as was the case with a pretty extensive crawl space project that Mom and I contracted to have done in the late spring/early summer of 2024.
But if you're like me, whenever a fix/repair need arises and it's something you can potentially do yourself, you go for it, hoping you can save some money and also for the bragging rights that come with being able to say, "Hey, I fixed that."
Some are fairly simple, like covering that new scuff on the wall with a bit of leftover paint. Others, however, are more complex, like that time I shocked myself (figuratively speaking) when I took lessons learned from a YouTube video several years ago and successfully changed the oven element in my stove.
A $30 part and some elbow grease (along with some prayers to God to please not let me get hurt) helped me save around $600 on a new stove. Needless to say, I felt pretty good about it.
SEE ALSO (VIP): The Simplest Solutions Can Be the Most Effective Ones
Sometime around September, one of the floodlights on our house went out. While one side of the house has concrete patio areas at the front and back that allow me to safely use a step ladder to change a bulb when it goes out, the side this happened on was a sloped, very uneven area where it wasn't safe for me to use a ladder to try and replace the bulb.
"Call a handyman," my mom suggested, trying to be helpful.
To change a lightbulb??
I was like, no - there's got to be a way to do this, some tool that has been invented to take the danger out of changing a hard-to-reach floodlight.
So I YouTubed it and Googled it, and lo and behold, there it was: a light bulb changer that included a long adjustable pole and three changer heads to use depending on the bulb size/position.
Here's what it looks like:
Bayco 11 Maximum Pole Length Steel Light Bulb Changer pic.twitter.com/xGeNfYaoRj
— ACE Hardware (@acehardware_af) December 2, 2018
I forked out the $25 on Amazon, got it the next day, and set out to change the light bulb.
But it was not without some difficulty, because not only was the area I was working in sloped and uneven, but it was (and is) also soft in some spots, thanks to moles. Also, I had to figure out a way to keep the pole from separating from the changer head when I was turning it counterclockwise to remove the bulb.
Through much trial and error (mostly error), after about 30 minutes, I'd figured it out, taking out the old bulb and installing a new one, all without calling a handyman and without throwing caution to the wind and trying to get on a ladder - the latter of which most likely would have ended in disaster.
I felt so good after I completed that project. It was like I had just climbed Mt. Everest.
I was so proud, in fact, that when our neighbor across the street walked to his mailbox to check for mail, I excitedly yelled, "Did you see what I just did??!"
He looked at me like I'd just sprouted bunny ears. I couldn't blame him.
In any event, fast forward a few months, and now we have another floodlight out, the one right next to the one I changed in September.
Feeling confident, I went and grabbed the light bulb changer tool and the spare floodlight bulb we had and walked to the area in question, feeling as though it would take me two or three minutes tops to finish changing out the bulb.
An hour and a half later and after doing some internal grumbling using words that might make even my Dad blush, I couldn't make the magic happen again. Either the changer head was stretched too much from the first time I used it or the current bulb is too tight for it to work.
So... I've ordered a new changer head in hopes that it works. If not, I've got a Plan C that involves some duct tape and some MacGyver-like skills.
Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. While winning is gratifying, losing sucks - but you should never give up trying.
I am determined that no handyman will be called for this work. Since I know so many will be glued to their seats to find out how this goes, I'll update you in a future VIP post. Stay tuned. ;)
