Our Kitchen Remodel: 12/30/09 - Day 54

I am truly blessed to be part of a talented family. Dad was an Ob/Gyn who brought thousands of babies into the world. Mom was a top principal and talented artist. My sister is an award-winning educator. My grandfather was a pullman porter. My Aunt Reba is almost 103 years old and is sharp as a tack. And my baby brother, Greg, is McGiver - a man who can do anything with anything. From the time Greg was 5 years of age, he was building things. Before he was 11, he built a 4x8' platform for his train set and constructed a pully system so it was housed just under the ceiling. By 15, he ad built a 5' concrete safe in the garage. By 18 he had installed a security system in mom's home. He was a hazardous materials expert for the Fire Department. And then he started a handyman business which turned into a general contracting business. He can do it all: plumbing, electrical, tile, framing. Everything.

So when my mom died in January 2007 and he fixed up her house so beautifully that it sold in just a few weeks, I decided to have him fix up my house too. The latest of my manias is completing this kitchen remodel. At our pre-Christmas party on December 11th for my son's family, I asked for his advice on beefing up the electrical service in my kitchen to accommodate new lighting fixtures. As Always, he came through like a champ!

Greg added another set of sockets and hooked my under-cabinet lights to a new switch that also controlled the new pendant lights over the peninsula.

What a romantic glow. This setting will be perfect or watching TV. Just enough light to get water from the refrigerator.

He replaced the dated 4' flourescent lights in the 4x6' recess overhead with a quirky set of unusual track lights. The eight heads provide quite a bit of light and are turned on by the main kitchen switch from the front room into the kitchen.

The old recessed light was replaced by a 4-headed light in the same style as the overhead track. The heads may be positioned to that they light under the side cabinets. They are on a separate switch from the other two zones. This picture shows this zone only on.