Kitchen Designer Gone Client!: WEEK 16 - PROGRESS SHINES BRIGHT!

Monday, February 21, 2011

After a long weekend of staring at the kitchen I questioned the paint color. The Tidewater blue was a little too vibrant in the evenings, but looked great during the daytime. Now that all the windows are trimmed and the wall cabinets installed, it will be a bit more laborious to change the color.

John was here bright and early dropping off base mouldings for the kitchen/dining area. Isaak wants to get them installed so he can finish up the electrical, since I decided to put the electrical outlets in the baseboard instead of the walls.

I come home to find all the first level of base mouldings completed, and the remainder of the window sills completed. Isaak has also installed the mouldings on the living room side of the pocket door and replaced a few other mouldings that were damaged during the demolition. He also put some well needed weather-stripping on the door to the garage. Now that door will stop singing everytime wind blows.

The hardware has been narrowed down to two options:

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Isaak was happy to find the box of under cabinet lighting in the kitchen. It finally arrived yesterday! He had been asking for these pieces for a few weeks now.

I tried to get out of the house early today for a training seminar with Kemper, but that did not happen. I spent time with Isaak going through the different components of the linear lighting system we are using under and inside the cabinets.

After a day of cabinet training, I head home to feed Fred & Roxie and let them have a little romp time in the snow. I find the Lutron components on the front stoop. Hooray light switches and outlets are here!

Now that the dogs are fed and happy, I meet Wayne for a Viking cooking demonstration in Fairfield hosted by Karl’s Appliances. These events are the best. Not only do you get to learn about the product, but you also get a cooking lesson and you get to eat the results!

Maybe there is a Viking in our future. One nice thing is that Viking is still made in America. Definitely a long day!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Before heading out to the gym, I spend the time to layout the electrical Lutron components to ensure I ordered the correct pieces. Whew…all is good and accounted for!

It was a long day of catch up the office today after spending a full day and part of the evening in training seminars. I come home to find all the outlets and switches are installed. Isaak did not install the trims for the recess lighting because he knew I wanted to paint the ceiling again.

Baseboard outlets. Great way to make them disappear.

In addition to the Lutron, Isaak installs and mounts the three Seagull Lighting transformers in the basement. These transformers will power all the under cabinet and interior cabinet lighting as well as the track lighting on the basement stairs. Each set of lighting has its own switch therefore each needs its own transformer.

Transformer City!

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Today Isaak installed the Seagull Ambiance low voltage linear lighting system under the wall cabinets. It is a very cool system that I use in many kitchens; but this time I am experimenting with the LED version. After doing some research on LED lighting, the light temperature of 2700K – 3000K with a color rendering index(CRI) of 90+ will put out a great colored light. This system comes with a warm light and a cool light version. Most of us gravitate to the warmer light, since we are a species that was raised around fire. Yes this LED system was a more expensive, but I will be able to recoup my investment within 4 years considering it is costing an average of $0.16 per lamp per year to operate. We will probably recoup that even faster considering how we can use this lighting system.

I have used this system many times before with xenon lamps. It has always been my favorite for an even task light across the kitchen counters. But halogen and xenon under-cabinet lighting all come with a concern about heating up your cabinet. There is no way around it unless you go with a fluorescent lamp which many people do not like the color. I have ruined a box of microwave popcorn in the showroom by leaving it on the bottom shelf against the heat. Only a small portion of the bag popped when I went to make a snack. I could not figure out what was wrong since we have the same popcorn at home, and then it dawned on me that I had left the under cabinet lighting on all night.

The xenon has been the top rated for brightest and lower heat than the halogen, but now the LED can step in with very little heat. You can actually wrap your hand around the LED light on this system and not get burned. In addition to the cost savings on energy, this particular LED lamp can be used to replace the halogen and xenon lamps on earlier versions of this lighting system. So you would not need to replace all the under-cabinet lighting components, only the lamps. Very cool! No pun intended!

Kermit the frog is so right when he sings “It’s Not Easy Being Green” and it’s not cheap either!!! There are many advantages to being as “green” as we can be, but it is also expensive. I searched for a recessed LED for the kitchen and finally found one that fit all of my requirements. A fantastic color of light, dimmable, the right temperature, deep recess and certainly bright enough! The only thing was it blew our lighting budget out of the water. I hemmed and hawed over the pricing and came up with a suitable compromise. I selected a recessed housing, that’s just the can part in the ceiling, that could be retrofitted to accommodate the Cree LED recessed fixture that I would like to have. Over time I expect the fixtures to drop in price, and we can start to change them over as save up. It’s nice to know we can still change over to the LED’s as our budget permits.

So there is my LED lighting lesson for the day, sorry to go on and on, but the right products are out there now and it’s time to start integrating them into our homes. Be careful of those recessed LED fixtures in the big box stores. They may cost only $50 - $60 per light, but they may not have the right temperature, CRI, brightness, etc. And most people are unhappy once they get it installed. Make sure you know what you are buying.

When I got home today I found that Isaak had installed all the tracks under the cabinets, but only installed one lamp on each run. What a tease!

Knowing this was a short day for Isaak, I head home early to get some painting done. The ceiling in an eggshell finish has been giving me quite a challenge. So I do the ceiling one more time and then put up our accent wall color in the dining area while the ceiling is drying.

Friday, February 25, 2011

I saw Isaak this morning and asked why only one lamp? He chuckled and said he wanted to space them out with me. So we spent a half hours laying out all the lamps approximately 4” on center.

We will have to wait for the interior cabinet lighting to be completed when John comes back. I am lighting the vertical sides of the glass cabinets so we can maintain the wooden shelving. The wiring needs to go behind the hinges, therefore John will have to rout these out on site.

The peninsula is still covered with a plastic drop cloth from yesterday and I notice there is tape across the microwave’s clock. So I ask who the clock-watcher is. Isaak gives me a perplexed look and his assistant fesses up to covering up the clock. There is a clock on the thermostat, clock on the microwave, a clock on the range and of course a clock on his cell phone. Apparently it was too much for him. A little strange don’t you think? Time must not be his friend.

Later in the day Isaak calls to let me know he no longer has an assistant. He was fired today, which was no surprise to any of us. Isaak has pretty much single handedly done the entire remodel without much help even when he had assistants here. Oh Bruce! Wish you were not retired you and Isaak would make a great team!

We come home to find all the under cabinet lighting installed. Not quite as warm as I expected, but that may come from the blue painted backsplash. I expect the light color to change a little once the tile goes up, but I am so excited to see it installed. Isaak you rock man!