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Post by rihannsu on Jul 1, 2016 21:20:51 GMT -5
Made it back home and will try to post more detail later but it won't be until Sunday at least. Michael is posting updates to the gofundme page for anyone who wants info on Cat's progress. Any help continuing to share the link around is greatly appreciated. www.gofundme.com/2b4qkb2c |
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Post by JustKaren on Sept 16, 2016 10:28:01 GMT -5
My Chandelier Story
(click on pictures for a larger view)
I'm sure you all remember the Glee episode where Adam swung from the elegant chandelier while singing "Marry the Night.”
When I heard the chandelier was going to be auctioned off after the end of Glee's final season, I knew I wanted to try for it. With a starting price of $100, one other person and I stair-stepped in $25 increments during the pre-auction bidding, stopping at my bid of $250. Several weeks later (late September) I was prepared to go at least a little higher in the final on-line bidding, but miraculously no one else bid there, and for $250 (plus some taxes/fees raising the final price to $327) the chandelier was mine!
I was afraid it would cost that much or even more to have it packed and shipped to me, or could get damaged in transit, so I talked them into holding it for a month until I got back from a pending trip to Italy (and then served a required Jury Duty stint). After some long distance conversations with the warehouse, they decided they could shoe-horn it into my Prius and on November 2nd I drove 400+ miles to Los Angeles, stayed overnight, and appeared at the warehouse early the next morning. They brought it out, hanging from a wheeled coat rack, and covered with a year’s worth of dust!
They also handed me a bunch of loose crystals that had fallen off during the storage period. The large crystals are beautiful, an unusual “Swedish cut” design, and a lovely champagne color.
The warehouseman explained that this was not a retail chandelier, but had been constructed in the television production department, with an infrastructure that was designed to support Adam’s weight, and to provide a way to make the chandelier “swing” while he held on. I wasn’t expecting the ugly black welds that had secured that infrastructure, or the huge black steel plate on the top, and knew I had a challenge ahead of me making it “presentable” to hang in my home.
The warehouseman and I man-handled the very heavy 42” tall x 27” wide chandelier into the back of my Prius, settling it on its side on pillows I had brought with me, and wrapped it in a quilt for the trip home.
Continued in next post ...Attachments:
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Post by JustKaren on Sept 16, 2016 10:38:11 GMT -5
My Chandelier Story - Part 2
(Sorry for the duplicate pic in the previous post ... I haven't quite figured out the attachment process, couldn't figure out how to delete the duplicate!)
About half-way on the 400 mile trip home reality began to set in. How was I going to get this monster out of the back of my car,
and then where was I going to hang it while I cleaned it and repaired the broken crystal chains and rehung the loose crystals? And how was I going to deal with the ugly black welds and hide or remove that big black steel plate on top? I put in a panic call to a friend who has an airplane hanger to see if I could hang it there while I worked on it, and instead he offered a portable scaffolding he owned, and volunteered to meet me when I got home and help me get it out of my car and onto the scaffold. Several hours later I pulled into my driveway and there he was, with his wife and the scaffold … and it took all three of us to wrangle the chandelier out of the car and onto its temporary hanging place in my garage.
And there it sat while I explored my options, and also while I travelled to Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Nashville for Adam’s TOH tour! Finally someone recommended a local handyman who was creative and loved challenges, but he wasn’t going to be available for several months. So the chandelier continued to hang in my garage. Finally in mid-April, Richard (the handyman) came by to look at the project, and at first wasn’t sure it was even possible to do what I wanted, but he agreed to think about it and see if he could come up with a plan. A week later he said he had figured it out, he would take it completely apart and re-assemble it without any of the ugly infrastructure. Because we hadn’t seen any of that part in the television episode I said that would be OK, but I needed to leave in the handles that Adam grabbed and hung onto. He said he could do that, but first I would have to completely remove all the crystal parts. I photographed the various sections and drew diagrams of the crystal placement, and then removed them all. In the process I realized that the clips holding the crystal chains together were weak and unattractive, so I ordered all new “bowtie” clips (800 of them!) and restrung everything in preparation for the reassembly.
We found out this was an industrial-strength chandelier … the screws holding the infrastructure had been secured with Loctite and wouldn’t unscrew … Richard had to grind off the screw heads and drill out the screws! Finally the chandelier was totally apart and spread out on my garage floor! Here is the ugly infrastructure that came out of the middle, and here it is hanging from the portable scaffolding in my garage, put back together with a clean central pole holding Adam’s handles, waiting for me to re-attach all the crystals.
 
Continued in next post ....
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Post by JustKaren on Sept 16, 2016 10:40:42 GMT -5
My Chandelier Story - Part 3 While Richard re-created a central structure (not necessary for the chandelier, but needed to secure Adam’s handles), I went on a search for crystals to replace some that appeared to be missing. That continues to be ongoing … so far I have found the unusual Swedish cut in clear, or the standard faceted cut in the champagne color, but not the Swedish cut in the champagne color. But, as you can see from the final picture, there is enough going on visually that the few missing pieces aren’t noticeable.
On Friday, July 1, the chandelier was moved into the house and hung over a large round coffee table in a small sitting area, replacing a fan, so the space was already set to hold the weight and was wired into a light switch on the wall (which Richard suggested replacing with a dimmer switch, which we did). I spent that evening and the following morning replacing all the crystals I had been preparing for several weeks, and then had an impromptu chandelier viewing for some neighbors to celebrate the completion of this 10-month project. It is huge and very in-your-face as you walk in my front door, but everyone said it was the perfect place for it.
I hesitated to post the pictures and this story on Adamtopia until my local Adamtopians had a chance to see it, and we finally accomplished that at a brunch last Sunday (September 11). So here is a picture of the finished chandelier, and a pic of the local Adamtopians with it (left to right: JustKaren, Didilynn, Scorpio, MomToMany.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2016 10:46:47 GMT -5
Karen, so thrilled that someone as lovely as you (an OG Glambert) got to be the keeper of this memento! Muwah!   |
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Post by betty on Sept 16, 2016 11:14:10 GMT -5
Thank you for sharing your wonderful and interesting story and all those pics with us, JustKaren!  Wow, so many things to consider and to do, what an effort until the chandelier was finally ready to be hung up in your home!  I'm so happy that you got the chandelier, it looks really beautiful in that place!  And you all look so gorgeous in that last photo, aww ...!  |
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Post by mszue on Sept 16, 2016 11:16:05 GMT -5
Awesome story and pictures, justkaren. I am also so tickled that the chandelier is in good...and somewhat [lol] accessible hands. Maybe you are now the repository for Adamtopia's pilgrimage destination! Sort of our Adam mecca....haha...now that might make you sorry you won this  . Did you ever figure out who you were bidding against? |
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Post by adamrocks on Sept 16, 2016 11:17:24 GMT -5
JustKaren....what a project you had to deal with to get the Chandelier home and put up!! It looks gorgeous up and I guess you have probably forgiven some of the mess you had to go through! Now you have a 'one of a kind' piece that was used by AFL in a performance!! It doesn't get much betterer than that! Thanks for sharing your story!
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babs12
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Post by babs12 on Sept 16, 2016 11:30:43 GMT -5
JustKaren - What a wonderful story... And what a great find! Thank you for sharing - It was great to see you in Nashville at TOH - Enjoy your wonderful large "memento" - Maybe you can add something from Rocky to accompany it....Til our next adventure...
Babs
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Post by rihannsu on Sept 16, 2016 12:58:28 GMT -5
That's incredible. You should send Adam pictures along with the story. I bet he'd get a kick out of you keeping his handles in there!
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. Did you ever figure out who you were bidding against?
