This might be a cheater post, since I’m calling it a kitchen update, but… oh well. I’m not going to apologize for that. There is definitely more progress than just what I have written here, but this is all I have pictures of so far. With the big job switch up, I’m mildly underemployed for most of this summer and we’re hoping this will speed up some of the kitchen work. I should have more time to blog about it, too. We all win!

We had one puny can light above the main part of the kitchen. We love that the ceiling is super dark, but this cool effect is totally lost without effective lighting. In this picture, it totally feels like the darkness is overtaking the whole room instead of sharing awesomeness with the whole room.
I knew I wanted a track light there, and when we were stove shopping I noticed a sleek 6-bulb unit in the clearance rack. Since I anticipated a little over $100.00 on this, there was no shock at the sticker price of $127.00. But you know, I’m not one to pay full price for that kind of thing. It was marked down to $23.00 (yes!) in satin nickel, which is the wrong color  (it’s pretty, but in our kitchen – no!). No fear: I knew I could spray paint it (double yes!), so we put it in the cart and grabbed some oil-rubbed bronze spray paint for my cheap-o DIY transformation.

This is the silly explanation on why I really wanted to spray paint this track: For our house, my rule of thumb is that light fixtures match the color ceiling they touch.  So the stuff in the main living area with dark ceilings will always have oil-rubbed bronze metal fixtures. Any hardwired lights we replace for bedrooms, bathroom and the back of the hall would have white or lighter silvery metal to flow with the normal white ceiling. This just seems the most streamlined way for us to go and I’m happy with our plan!

So, after we got sick of the boxed lights laying around forever, Aaron used his man power to turn off some of the electricity to the house. I should probably mention that when we turned off the lights, it was the middle of the night on Friday. Some people stay up late and get drunk on the weekends, we choose to work on house projects. In this case, with the help of a head lamp.

Aaron claims this headgear will be handy for his many future spelunking expeditions.

And after Aaron spent a half hour of finagling with it, I went to the garage and sawed some wood to create a brace for the fixture box while he was still holding the light up to the ceiling with his arms. He’s basically Atlas. Or, as he would mistakenly call himself, “Achilles”. (Nice heels, babe.)

statue of a greek god, cropped for obvious reasons

Finally, at last, we got everything up securely and connected all the wires and installed all the futuristic curly fry light bulbs. In our kitchen, it was like the first moment where God cried out “Let there be light!” Suddenly we knew this was how it was supposed to be in here all along.

before, with just the one can light

after, with six lights on a track

the view from the dining room. don't worry - the blue color and weird curtainy thing on the pantry are practically history!