Kitchen Lighting!

My kitchen has always been horrible when it comes to lighting. Last year Michael put in can lights and it made a world of difference. I also found these puck lights at Costco that helped light up the counters. Unfortunately they took 27 batteries and they didn't last very long at all. I decided we had to do something that was more economical. 

Here's a view of the puck lights. I had a few things to return to Lowe's so I figured I might be able to use the money from the return to get some under-cabinet lights. Holy cow....talk about expensive! It was $59 for just one light and we were going to need 6 or 7.....not happening! 

Later that night I was contemplating what to do and then it dawned on me....we have under-cabinet lighting in our laundry area. Seriously how could I have never thought of that before. 

Here is the under-cabinet lights in the laundry room. I bought these years ago at IKEA when we first turned our entryway closet into a mudroom. I thought we'd had them for around 3 years and it's actually been a little longer than that. When we put them up in the mudroom it was a pain to turn them on and off so I just left them on. Even now in the laundry room I just leave them on all the time....kind of like a night light. So they've literally been on for years and are still ticking! 

I really wanted to go to IKEA first thing on Monday morning, but then we had the snowstorm so I had to wait until Wednesday to head out. IKEA has actual under-cabinet lights, but again they are more expensive. These lights are found in the lighting section and it's 4 lights for $24.99! So cheap for something that last so for so long. 

Michael had planned to work on the lighting project on Saturday. I was going to take Ella to her 7 year old pictures and then the kids and I were going to go to a birthday party. Well....I woke up Saturday morning not feeling too hot so plans changed. Michael ended up taking Ella and Jack to Ella's pictures and then he dropped them off at the party. Owen and Zeke stayed home with me and when Michael came back he got right to work. 

Michael had this whole thing figured out and he tried explaining it to me and it honestly wasn't making sense. I've done my fair share of remodeling with him, but for some reason this wasn't computing. No worries though because I knew my man had it under control. I would have enjoyed watching the progress, but as it was I was so not feeling good I didn't come down from my bedroom until Monday morning! I just got to see the finished product and none of the actual work except these pictures. 

When he installed the can lights last year we decided that we didn't really need the light that was over the sink....it would have been a bit overkill. Michael just used one of those white blank circles and covered up the hole, but he still left all the electrical in place. That's where he ended up drawing the power for the under-cabinet lights. They are the plug in kind, but he made it where the plugs were up in the ceiling and then the light switch down by my sink controls those plugs. It's nice having the option of turning them off, but honestly I doubt I will very often. 

As you can see he had to take down all the crown molding and then a couple cabinets. He had to drill through the ceiling/floor joists so he could run the wire through. 

Of course this section of the kitchen had a ton of different obstacles in the way....pipes...electrical....it was certainly a test in patience for Michael. 

On Saturday he was able to finish the right side of the kitchen. 

This is the picture he took so he could show me when I was upstairs in bed. So bright! 

On Sunday he took the cabinet on the left of the sink down and got to work on that side. This side was much easier since there wasn't anything in the way and there was also only 1 strand of lights going in on this side. He finished that side by early afternoon. 

The next morning when I was finally feeling better I came down to this extraordinarily light kitchen! I love it! I love how bright it is! 

Here's a picture of the what the lights look like. The little wires were either brought down behind the cabinets or in-between them. Each light came with a double adhesive foam sticker to mount them. For some reason the right light under the microwave decided it didn't want to stick later in the day, but I have this super sticky adhesive tape from Stampin' Up so I just used that and stuck it back up and it's been just fine!