Let there be LIGHT!

O.K.  Here go the remodeling posts …  first up, the lighting.  In our old kitchen we had this very eighties dropped light “fixture” that disguised the fluorescent tubes.  A very big, built in box that had those awesome plastic sheets that covered the tubes.  Here’s the best picture I could find (because, of course, I didn’t take any “before” pictures).

From 2011 WordPress Pics

You can see we had a pretty basic round globe thing over the sink (and a fancier one in the eating area, which I don’t have a picture of).

So, we’d talked about getting rid of “the box” for awhile, but ordering new cabinets lit a fire under our feet.  One really long demolition evening and we ended up with this:

From 2011 WordPress Pics

You wouldn’t have thought it would be so hard to take out a little drywall.  We were amazed at how much more open the kitchen felt – even with a nice view up into the ceiling!

We thought (for a brief moment) that we’d try to repair the hole ourselves.  But that was a fool’s errand, so we thought again and hired it out (thanks, Travis, for always recommending great handymen)!  Before we had the hole in the ceiling closed (we eventually removed the lights and the remaining drywall square for better access), we “pulled” wire for the can lights we planned to install.  It also took longer than we planned, due to a dying drill that didn’t have the juice to do more than one hole through a joist before needing to be charged again.  (We did finally buy a new drill when we got ready to install handles – but that’s another post!)

Here’s our new ceiling with almost all the can lights wired up (this part we did ourselves, thank you very much)!

From 2011 WordPress Pics

I’m glad to say they all worked first time when we turned the power back on.  Maybe I should think about a career as an electrician??

Finally, we replaced our light over the sink and the one over the table with these:

From 2011 WordPress Pics
From 2011 WordPress Pics

Next up?  The demolition of our kitchen …

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