Lighting: Thank God, I Can See Now While Doing Dishes

Above our sink used to be a canister light shining over the sink.  Then, we put in a tin ceiling and I covered that up.  Don't worry, Mike Holmes, I removed the wiring from the canister before covering it.  We then put in kitchen cabinets and ran a shelf between two bump outs.  So, I, being the wise one I am, decided to put a puck light in the shelf above the sink in order to replace the canister that had been there.  One problem.  Try finding a single puck light that you can hard wire.  Nope.  And, I wasn't about to spend $80 on a group, so I could use one light.  I did the next best thing, I bought a puck light that has a plug, cut the plug off, and hard wired it.  It lasted 17 seconds.  So, instead I got this:

It's from a big box store...ok, it was Lowe's, maybe they'll give me an endorsement deal.  It shines a good deal of light and is nice to use as an accent light to keep the kitchen illuminated rather than the five remaining canister lights.  I'm guessing one is cheaper to run then five.  Here is what it looks like.

And, before you start mocking me about the title that I don't do dishes, I do.  Except for that one in the sink in the picture above.  Christ, I'm really not good at this picture taking blogging thing.

Inspiration: Kitchen Cabinet Lighting



As previously reported, the next order of business and to complete the undercabinet lights in the kitchen.  Previously, we had these:

They don't give off the most pleasant light it being bright and white.  Plus, they flickered as only flourescents can before coming on.

astleforddesign.com

kitchen-cabinet-bathroom.com

This last one is an example of the bright white light we are trying to avoid.

helpful-kitchen-tips.com

In the meantime, we'll continue our search.

Kitchen: Almost Done!

A while back, we redid the kitchen.  And, of course, it's still not done.  That's how I roll, so to speak.  One of these day's, when feeling like I need to self deprecate, I will post all of the unfinished projects I have.  There are a lot.

Anyway, below is our kitchen as I was in destruction phase.  I'm really good at destruction phase.  I'm also much thinner now then the toad in the picture below.  About 40 pounds thinner.  Mark's Daily Apple.  Go there.  Be inspired.  It works.

I have scoured the computer for before shots prior to that one and can't find any.  This was done pre-blogging, of course.  Not that my picture taking has gotten any better.  Here are a couple more of the "pre" pictures.

I included a picture with my father-in-law, without who's guidance half the stuff I embark upon wouldn't be completed.  As you can see, we took out a bar height wall along with all the cabinets.  We didn't change the footprint of the room, meaning the sink, stove, refrigerator and dishwasher are all in the same place which is a huge cost savings.  We simply updated the contractor grade cabinets and counters with new.  We did add a little bit of storage, as well, replacing the bar which I am dismantling in the top picture.

Here is the nearly completed kitchen.  As a side note, I'm going to begin posting a lot about the inside of the house.  The reason for my lack of posts, is that the garden is taking a back seat to the completion of the house itself.  The way I look at it though, is that I have a big garden that we happened to plunk a house in the middle of.  Therefore, the house is as much of the garden as the outdoors is.  Moving along...

Two things still need to be done.  First, the backsplash is wood wainscoting, needs to be caulked and painted.  Second, we need to replace the under cabinet lights.

As you can see, there are some wires sticking down.  Don't panic, the circuit breaker is off for these.  Anyway, that's the second thing that needs to be done.  More on that later.