Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Blinded By The Light

We got almost all the lighting wired for the living room/kitchen area. This is the lighting plan that the BFA came up with for me and I think it is SO cool. Due somewhat to the fact that the ceilings are so high and vaulted etc. he decided to put all of the lighting on the walls. The fixtures start approximately 2' out of the corners and then you have one every 4 feet and go all the way around the room. On the North and South walls these line up with every other rafter; this photo shows that. Now, they are wired in equal sections so that you can turn on part of them instead of just everone of them coming on at one time. If I want just the ones over the kitchen sink on, I can turn just those on or opposite sections in the living room etc. I think you probably get the idea. I know at first glance some of you are probably thinking that there is nothing green about this as they probably burn alot of electricity but it would be rare for me to actually turn them all on plus they will use about 40-60 watt bulbs and now they have those cool swirly ones that hardly use any power. Now, the BFA wants me to use plain, porcelain socket type fixture (very economical) but this would require using special light bulbs since they would be exposed and you don't want them glaring at you. I'm not very disposed to having to go someplace special to find some special light bulb that they are going to charge you some special price for. So.. I'm trying to find a very simple, affordable fixture ( I need 30).
Plus, with a porcelain fixture etc., the bulb sticks out straight and I just don't like that or the color blah, blah, blah so anyway, I am trying to come up with something maybe I could make. I'll keep you informed. The BFA is aggravated at me for this but he is usually aggravated at me about something so it's all fine. I am going to keep it simple though which I think is the main idea. These pictures really don't do it justice but of course, there is no drywall up or anything so it is sort of hard to imagine. We have some sockets on the boxes now just to be able to have light and the bulbs in them are 100 watt so they are much brighter than what I think they will be later.
This is just a silly shot of the bedroom ceiling with the light on. I'm still fascinated with the fact that you can go in the house and flip lights on. Oh!! My windows came in this morning so we will be installing those soon. YES! No more wind and rain blowing in! We have hung all the ceilings that get drywall and have hung the Durock in the shower and insulated some exterior walls. That means that I now have an attic too! Which needs insulating. I feel like I will be working the rest of my life on this house and I know in ways I will, but I will be glad to see even a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! I am sooooo envious of you. (Plus I'll probably steal a bunch of your ideas.)

MamaHen said...

That's fine Pablo! I hope that somebody gets some ideas or learns something new from this.