Adventures in Lighting, part two

The electrical fun continued yesterday, after a semi-warm shower (no, the heating/hot water system isn’t really “fixed” yet, though the plumber is here again this afternoon, and I hear that a service man from the manufacturing company will come on Monday to look at the system. Sheesh.) which made me feel slightly better about the world after the midnight millipede visit. So here’s the before pic:

(except that it’s really an after pic because I forgot to take one while the light was still attached to the ceiling, which is why you see it on the carpeted floor ) The light itself is less than three feet wide in an 18′ x 24′ room, hence the feeling of sitting in a cave.

Anyway, remember that I said the new light wasn’t heavy, and that I could therefore do it myself? Wrong. I swear the sucker was almost as heavy as the big chandelier in the dining room! I was already halfway into the job by the time I figured that out, so I just finished it, but it was hard!

I did have to have GuitarGirl help me hold the heavy part up to the ceiling so that I could wire it, and LittleOne was here to hand tools and parts to me while I was up on the chair, so truthfully, a little help was needed. It was good for the girls to see that you can do these kinds of things yourself, and maybe you need a little help, but that help doesn’t have to be in manly form.

Two hours after beginning the job, I had a new light hanging from the ceiling in the studio:

It’s a modern looking thing, for sure, but as long as I have light, I don’t much care what it looks like up there. It is kind of cool though, since it’s about nine feet long overall, plus the two and a half foot extension on the end, and then there’s the pendant light as well.

All in all, the output of the new light is only 35 watts more than the old one, but the old one really was past it’s prime and might even be a fire hazard anyway. The new light has seven spots that are 20 watts each, plus the hanging pendant light that’s 35 watts, and the lighting is spread out over more of the room area, so it’s a bit better than it was. I even managed to position the pendant lamp right over one of my tables.

I’ve ordered new bulbs that will hopefully not be so yellow, and not lose so much light out the back either. If that doesn’t work, I may have to spring for the daylight halogens that I managed to find online yesterday, but they’re a bit pricey, so I thought I’d try the cheap ones first!

Still on the list of electrical to-dos: lighting for the design wall area, switching the ceiling lamp in the kitchen for the one in the master bedroom (they’ll look better that way), and installing an combination outlet/switch (as opposed to just a light switch) in ITMan’s bathroom so he can plug things in in there. sigh A woman’s work is never done.

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