Day 236 - Shedding Light

The electrician crew is still hard at work putting in light fixtures and I think they were really happy to see the weekend roll around.  As we have come to learn from our builder, lighting is a common struggle in building any house.  I think we had at least three walkthroughs before the electricians started putting in wire.  Now we are at the stage of determining the height of fixtures, the exact location, and in a couple of cases - do we EVEN have the right light fixtures!!!!!  Things look different on the showroom floor or in a catalog.  So, the light fixture portion of this project is going to take a while.

Boxes of lighting supplies stacked on stairs

Since we have some pretty high ceilings, we bought very long life LED lights for many of the fixtures.  The extra cost of these bulbs will be offset by the lower frequency of replacement and avoiding the cost of hiring someone to come replace the bulbs in the really high places.

LED bulbs awaiting installation

We are lucky to have a really good crew working with us and the guys are very nice about answering our questions and making suggestions.

Bruce and Ernest discussing challenges

Even with the challenges, it is lots of fun to see the fixtures get put in place.  Here's a brief tour of what's been done so far.

Entry way lantern

Sconces on either end of upstairs window seat

Foyer light (in progress)

Back porch fans

Here are a couple of the lighting challenges we will resolve in the coming days.  The first is master bathroom pendants - we need to decide which height we like and when the cabinets arrive, we will need to make sure they are in the correct places above the sinks.

Simple master vanity pendant lighting

The next challenge is the powder room pendants.  I thought our fixtures were downrods, not cables, to hold the glass globes from Wimberley Glassworks.  So, I was surprised to see the cables hanging when Ernest asked me to help him with the height of the fixture.  I bought an inexpensive downrod fixture at Loew's afterwards and we will work this issue on Monday.

Powder room problem

And the last lighting challenge is that we bought the wrong size fixture for the lighting for the staircase. This fixture was selected by looking at a catalog and I failed to notice its tiny proportions.  It looks lost in the stairwell.  I think I've already found the right replacement, we just need to get it ordered and the wrong fixtures returned.  So, lesson learned, pay attention to sizes!!!

Can you even see the light?

 We have time to get all of the issues resolved without too much hassle.  We both are learning so much through this process and still enjoying the ride!!