Friday, September 3, 2010

Lights!

Almost a month ago, my son and I went out of town for my family reunion. While we were gone, my husband worked around the yard and in our bedroom. You may or may not remember this lovely light fixture:
The thing hung down so far that I, in all my 5 feet and 4 inches, would hit it while getting dressed. So he pulled it out and started hacking away at the ceiling -- taking out huge chunks of fire-rated drywall and laying the groundwork for some recessed lighting.

Because we decided not to fork over the money for the specific bit to quickly and efficiently cut out the circles we needed, here is our initial technique: drilling holes, and then sawing away with a drywall saw.

When I got home, I was drafted into holding the vacuum up to the work area to try and minimize the mess...

Later on, my husband took the idea to saw from above, and this proved to be a much easier and quicker method.

holes in the ceiling

To go along with the new lighting scheme, we also decide to install a dimmer, which apparently is a pretty easy fix.

even though it looks here like it was the greatest challenge of all time to ever overcome...

We bought the UtiliTech brand cans made for remodels (they have clips that hold them in place, so you don't have to worry about attaching to joists) and we used 6" white baffle trim.
light fixture without trim or bulb

with trim and bulb

Hooray for having lights in our bedroom again! And it only took three weeks...

The new lights really make the room feel a lot more warm and inviting. The hole in the center (covered with blue tape) is where the original light fixture was, and we're still playing around with the idea of putting in a new ceiling fan... otherwise we'll probably just patch it up. The next project for this room will be paint... good thing Valspar has a rebate going on this week!

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