19 May 2010

Doorbell Chime

Back in May of 2009 we decided to repaint our living room. In the process I removed the doorbell cover and chime. No big loss, I didn't really miss it (in fact we kind of regret having a doorbell at times now), but it did leave some wire's hanging out of the wall. I finally decided we needed to do something about the wires. Sure I could just reinstall the old one; everything worked, but I've never liked the whole look of a plastic box sticking out of the wall (If something goes on a wall it should be decorative or functional.) While, the doorbell cover is marginally functional (it covers the ugly chime,) it doesn't do anything but sit there and detract from the rest of the decor in the room. On the other hand a thermostat while it can be ugly it displays the temperature and allows me to control my environment (functional.) It was decided that our new doorbell chime should be decorative as well as functional.

The process of finding anything decorative my wife and I agree on is a lengthy and often stressful one. But along and alas we finally picked a new chime, the Craftmade Hand Carved Scroll Design Chime in Matte Black - (CH1515-BK.). After it arrived and we opened it up to take a look. It has real glass with an Tea stained/frost to it and the whole thing is very solid. After holding it up in place we decided it would look really awesome if it had a light in it, (considering it looks like an old time lantern.) I said, "Sure I can do that."


Now the fun part was figuring out how. I didn't want to have the light on constantly or I would be wasting energy and replacing bulbs all the time. After some thought I came up with the best idea. I would use a night light with the light sensor on it. I stripped down the nightlight, bringing it completely down to it's skivvies; wires exposed, the whole nine yards. I had to remove the sensor that was soldered on the night light circuit board and then attach it to a cord that would enable the sensor to sit outside the chime cover. Then I knew I had to secure a way for the light to stay IN the box. That was a bit tricky. I went through several iterations of securing the light, in the process mildly electrocuting myself, and finally had it all good to go. But the darn light wouldn't turn on, no matter how dark I got it. After much consideration, contemplation, and a bit of frustration, it dawned on me. I hadn't screwed in the light bulb! So I had to practically dismantle the whole thing to put in the bulb, and it works.

2 comments:

  1. haha! That's freakin' awesome - you're a genius. ;)

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