Replacing Old, Ugly Light Switches {Bathroom Makeover, Phase 3}

This should be a somewhat familiar site to anyone who owns an older home. Heck, our house in California was built in the early 1960s and had the same issues!

Lovely off-white (ECRU!!) switches, outlets, and plates. When the rest of the trim in the house is white. I don't think I will ever understand, but... it is what it is. And this is now the second house where I've had to go through and replace everything. siiiiiiiiiiiigh...

Luckily, the outlet itself was already white-- just a little dirty. Replacing GFCI outlets is a little trickier than regular outlets, and will merit its own post someday (I dread replacing them. Seriously.). But I didn't worry too much about this one. And replacing the face plate is EASY-- total piece of cake. The switch was the harder part.

The first step was to make sure the power to the switch was OFF! I actually did this project when I was repainting the light fixture, so I already knew the power was off. I am the Queen of Efficiency! See how that all worked out? :)

The next step was to unscrew the face plate, unscrew the switch, and gently pull it out from the wall. OH-MY-GOD-I'M-GONNA-GET-ELECTROCUTED!! Ok, I didn't. The power really was off. I would make a horrible electrician, though, because I am always convinced I am going to get zapped. Side note: I did get zapped, once, at our old house. It turned out that one outlet was actually supplied by two different lines, and only one was turned off. That was messed up. And I felt very tingly for a while... But clearly (and thankfully!), I did not die or sustain terrible injury. Still, my fears are somewhat justified...

So I pulled it out, and it looked like this. Thank goodness. The wires looked good. It matched up with the new switch I had. Whew!

I loosened one screw at a time, releasing one wire at a time, and attached it to the identical spot on the new switch. It really wasn't bad.

Then I fastened the switch back onto the wall with the screws provided. And I painted around the area, because I'm no dummy! That's one less thing I will need to tape off when I paint the room later. WOOHOO!!

Once the paint dried enough, I attached the face place. Then I turned the power back on. Moment of truth......... and it worked! I did it! And it looked pretty darn good, too! Happy day!