Kitchen Update

Insulation and drywall are up in the new wall sections on the west side of the kitchen.

Stace moved on to wiring in new sockets and switches on the north wall, where we soon will have a pantry, additional storage cabinets and small desk.

Every home do-it-yourselfer should have a qualified electrician to help with these sorts of jobs...

Don't worry. No 4-year-olds were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Stace borrowed a really cool recessed-light-hole-cutting saw to make holes in the new ceiling...

Bye-bye, florescent tubes!

Hello, recessed lights. So glad to welcome you to our kitchen!

Here are the lights, and the new ceiling on the right side. As you can imagine, knowing Stace, the light tray is equidistant to where the new upper cabinets will be placed. And you should see his colorful diagram showing how he decided where to place the lights. (Each bulb casts its glow down in overlapping arcs, to maximize the amount of light. I truly don't understand how he comes up with this stuff. But I do appreciate it!)

This shows the new wall connecting to the hallway, the new ceiling, the covered-over old air conditioning vent, and the new kitchen wall, with its switches, sockets and phone jacks. The main lighting is on a dimmer switch, like we had and loved in our condo. The other switch will control undercabinet lighting above the desk. The top socket will be within a cabinet, for the undercabinet lighting and for our cell phone chargers.

Tonight, Stace removed the pantry and set it up in the corner you see pictured above. The fridge is next to it, and he's working this week on moving the electrical wires and water pipes so our fridge can move into the corner space vacated by the old pantry. Then, he'll move the wires so the stove and microwave can shift down into their new positions. This means a lot of cabinetry and counter space will be demo'd soon!