Let there be light

In case you didn't notice from the original house tour pics one thing is noticeably absent from our house.  Lights!  There are no recessed lights in the house.  The only existing lights are oh-so-fabulous fluorescents and unacceptably out of date chandeliers.  Such as this:

Gorg!

The previous owners must have used all lamps and other standing fixtures for lighting in the main living areas and bedrooms.  I am all for a good lamp but in reality I need some decent overhead lighting as well.  So, one of the first things I embarked on was getting recessed lighting installed.  Because we were also going to be removing light fixtures from some rooms I wanted to get the electricians in and out before we started working on those ceilings so that we wouldn't make more work for ourselves.  Once they removed old lights and installed new ones we would know what we were working with and could tackle the ceiling repair.  First, I went through the house and marked all of the areas that I thought needed light based on natural light and task needs throughout the house with blue tape on the ceiling. 

My mom then gave me the great idea of calling Sarah from Urban Objects in Pensacola.  Urban Objects is a great independent lighting store in p-cola which has beautiful fixtures and lovely people.  Sarah came out to our house and stayed for hours doing a walk through and giving her input on light placement.  This cost $80, which is then returned to you in the price of a light if you end up buying anything from them.  Money well spent!  Sarah gave me lots of great ideas that I had not thought of.  Including reducing the number of can lights I was considering in order to install some different types of fixtures.  Check out Urban Objects site here.

Once I had decided my rough lighting plan we called in the experts.  After a home visit and bid we hired an electric company to do the job in a quoted 4-5 days.  I'm withholding the name of the company intentionally but if after reading this post you would like to know it just message me.

Well, 4-5 days turned in to 3 weeks.  That was frustrating but not entirely surprising in reno work.  However, doubly frustrating was the poor quality of the work we received.  Yes, we now have can lights.  We also have extra holes in our ceiling, a room still without electricity and missing parts for certain canisters.  The owner of the company did come out to the house after we requested him and has promised to repair the issues.  If and when that happens, I will let you know. 

In the meantime, despite the exasperation we do have can lights in our house and I am very exited about them.  I had all the lights in the main living areas and the bedrooms put on dimmers for a more natural light.  Here is a photo of the lights in our master bedroom (one of the rooms where there were no issues).  This is also a  sneak peek of our semi-finished master.