Kitchen Remodel 2005: Lighting

August brought the final phase of the project: lighting. As we were doing this ourselves, it could take a while. We had ordered boxes of Tech lighting Monorail single track lighting and have been waiting 2 months to install it. Now's the time. The basic idea is to take the rails, which are "flexible", bend them to the shape you want, attach them to the ceiling, provide low-voltage power, and hang lights on them. Sounds easy, right? Three weeks later, we finally had light in the dining room, and we've still got the kitchen to do. But we learned a lot in the process, and the kitchen should go more quickly. Parts is parts. There are about 75... We used 10 gauge copper wire to see how... Beth designed and drew the sinuous shape... This was moved into the garage, where a... The first rail basically bent. The far... On to the second rail. Beth had sprained... Closeup of the rail and the pegs. The... Basically bent, the two rails are hung... Another view.... Installing the \ Roughing in the last of the mounts? Not... The power junction box from below...... ...and above.... After connecting the power feed (top),... The actual dining room lights... Here you can see just about the whole... A week or so later, we set the length of... Later, we added some Crystal Ball party...
   
After the dining room, we moved to the kitchen. This was easier, because we had gained experience with the dining room, so it went a bit faster. On the other hand, it's twice as much track. Same basic process. Beth drew the pattern on construction paper, then we used various methods to bend: the bicycle wheel seems best. For tight bends though, we used an old kitchen trash can. Beth did a lot of the counter-top standing, as I keep whomping my head on the beams. Starting the track layout.... Three out of four...... All laid out... Using a variety of string and copper... Beth helps hang track.... Beth determines if the corner is in the... Anchors start to go in.... Tough to see the entire track. Looking... In this odd view, you can see how the... One side with the lights basically... ... then on.... Basically done. As with the dining room,... Complete. We added some additional... Here's the dining room and kitchen from...