We Light up My Life!

 So Saturday was not tile day.  It wound up being electrical day.  Here's the scene.  Our bathroom was ALWAYS under-lit.  We had an old dropped ceiling in there and the sole light came from a four foot flourescent light bulb.  ONE such bulb as it was an old fixture and the other light bulb would not work.  It was not the bulb, we had tried that.  Anyway, it was dim in there.  Dim enough that all my life I have had a clear shower curtain.  Not being I am an exhibitionist. Because I can't see well enough if the curtain is not clear.  So while my wife wanted a window and other things in this room, I wanted good lighting.  I researched and found that can-less recessed LED lights were a great option. I ordered a set of 4 that could be linked together.  I read up on lights like you wouldn't believe.  

I discovered that LED lights will use less energy.  They will be instant on.  And , dang, I can see in there!  I was able to set up the lights so that there is one right over the shower area.  I was able to set up two over the washer dryer area, and one that will cover the back side of the room where the toilet and closet will be.  Yes!  We'll be able to see in the closet too.  No more fishing around playing "where's that product!"

I learned a couple of things.  Wiring these was really easy.  I also learned that the GFI plug that was in our bathroom pre-reno was not wired correctly.  There was no ground.  It would not have done its intended safety function if needed.  We were not safe the way I thought I was.  And we paid an electrician for that.  That is fixed now.  And the GFI works downstream and will cover all the other electrical components in the room.  In the picture above, you will also see a black thing.  That little beauty is our new  exhaust fan.  It is so sweetly quiet I could not believe it was on.  I haven't installed the ducting yet.  (which will be an interesting thing) because I had to order the ducting kit from the Big Box store.  But soon that will be in and then I'll drop the light fixtures  for a bit and hang the drywall.

The lights work on a dimmer switch that can take them down to 10%  And they have another super feature.  Look at this last pic?  That is the night light feature.  That dims down too!  It is just totally cool.  

Tiling deferred!

Most recently when I texted with my friend and all things construction guru E, he had said he would not be available this weekend.  So K and I planned to work on our kitchen backsplash.  We have filled the niche, hung the drywall, used outlet extenders for the first time, and agreed on a tile. (the latter being by far the hardest part of this endeavor thus far.  We bought about 5 samples and finally settled on this Jeffery Court tile from the big orange box store.  It has colors that really tie to the existing Corian, but has sparkles of bright copper that will be a lovely accent.

We also decided that we would like a pencil trim at the bottom.  I am not a fan of grout lines at the base of the counter and like the look of the pencil trim below.  However, we might have to wait a bit to find out how all this comes together.  E texted last night that he was available after all if I wanted to work together today.  Well of course I did!  And we did electrical!  There will be pictures, in another post but they truly don't do the job justice.  Part of that is because the lights are mounted in a temporary fashion until I am able to duct for the exhaust fan.  But this is fine with me.  

 As a bonus, the extra time allowed me to do yet more research on the tile job and I have found a product that is a sticky membrane called Musselbound and think that I would like to use that instead of mastic.  I ordered that and it will be in before next weekend.  Meanwhile if I have free time (something always in a short supply around here) we can start putting up drywall in the section of the bathroom that is over the shower stall. We have a bit more levelling to do of the base area for the shower pan. And we can finish off the bathroom closet.  It is coming along.  And wait till you see the lights!!!