Kitchen Lighting Remodel

Ok, so Doug and I are weird about weird things.  The other day, we were talking with our friends about how we don't like the fluorescent light in the kitchen.  Minutes later, we heard a loud "pop", and the light went out.  We went to buy a ballast, and then discovered that the ballast in that particular fixture could not be removed, and we would have to buy a whole new fixture.  (Insert frowny-face.) 

Before=Blah.

So, we decided we would just buy a regular light fixture, rather than the commercial-looking fluorescent light.  That just looked wayyy too dim, even for a temporary solution.  It reminded me of the kitchen in "A Christmas Story"--too dim.  So we decided to go for it--recessed lighting! 

The temporary solution...and racing stripes!  Can you spy Doug's finger?

Recessed lighting was the plan all along, but we were thinking we would do it later on.  We weren't even sure if we could get in the attic above the kitchen.  Well, Doug crawled right on up there, no problem!  He did a lot of research, and figured out how to do it himself.  I did my best to help. 
      

Up in the Attic

The hardest part was mapping it out.  We drew it all out on graph paper.  Then we cut out dots to make sure we liked the layout on the ceiling. 

Dots

Then we put coat hangers into the ceiling where they would go, so that he could see the location of the lights from in the attic.

Coathangers come in handy!

That's when he discovered that a gas line goes right through where we wanted to put our middle lights.  So we had to adjust. 

We got our plans finalized.  Then came the scary part--cutting! 

Peek-a-Boo!

But it worked out ok, and all the lights are now in their new homes.  It turned out quite lovely.  What do you think?

AFTER!

Classy?  I say yes!