How to install recessed lights

If you are in the middle of a long bathroom reno that has left you without a shower, I recommend that you embark on a side project and install pot lights in your kitchen. I mean, the whole house is already a mess, so why not wreck the kitchen too.

In my defense, the idea popped into my head when we were tearing up the subfloor in the bathroom, exposing the kitchen ceiling, which got me to thinking... while we're in there, why not upgrade the kitchen lighting. So, when my poor brother-in-law arrived to help us, or shall I say, to replace the bathroom floor, I brought up my crazy idea for kitchen pot lights, and he was very helpful. Turns out that our kitchen ceiling has been dropped 13", covering up an original tin ceiling. Quel dommage! But, there must have been a leak in the original bathroom, because the tin ceiling below the old tub is all rusted out and curled up. But the rest of it is in mint condition. Alas, we are not about to tear out the dropped ceiling now. All we want is some pot lights, dammit!!

This inspired a trip to the horrid big box stores, commencing the debate: PAR20 vs. GU10? Which type of bulb should we choose? Both are halogen. Both have a non-dimmable CFL energy efficient bulb alternatives. I read widely on the internet and could not decide which was better. (Please comment if you have anything to share on the PAR20 / GU10 debate.) It seems that the Europeans & Australians are far ahead in energy efficiency than we North Americans, due to their higher energy costs. I found out that they have a Megaman GU10 bulb that is dimmable, but have not seen these in Canada yet. Hopefully these will soon be available here.

The fixtures sat on the floor for weeks while we made small advances on the lighting each week, between bathroom reno jobs. First thing was to determine the placement of the fixtures. This required the use of a stud finder, to avoid the ceiling joists. Lots of careful measurement and finally we had the marks on the ceiling. We drilled some small pilot holes and put a fine wire up into the ceiling to make sure that there was sufficient space in each location. Only one proposed hole was too close to the joist, so we had to modify all the locations, so they were evenly spaced.

We sat on this for a week, to ensure that the placing was correct. The following weekend, we used the template to trace the proper sized circle for each fixture, and I directed Dan in cutting each circle with a drywall saw. We protected the cupboards and contents with some old striped sheets. Then we pulled some 14/2 cable from one hole to the next. We were almost out of time before sunset, but there was still time for a quick coat of ceiling paint. Robomike was here, working on the bathroom, and shaking his head in disbelief at us. Poor guy was trying to get to the table saw in the back yard, which required passing thru the kitchen/painting zone. When he was done his day of work we fed him some mediocre delivery pizza because the kitchen was covered in sheets, but he didn't complain (to us).

A week passed with no progress, but this weekend there was a big push. I did some last minute internet research to confirm that GU10 was still the way to go, and at 5 pm on Sunday, we started to put the cans in the ceiling. The electrician on Mike Holmes said that those inexpensive big box recessed lights bug him, and now I know why. They are tiny and it is hard to fit all the cables in there. Plus, they don't come with the strain release connectors, so you need to buy them separately. The instructions are very poorly written and poorly translated, so you really have to read them over a few times to try to figure out what the hell they are saying. But eventually, I figured it out, and by 10 p.m. on Sunday -- we had pot lights in our kitchen. Every morning and every night, we are thrilled with our new kitchen lighting.

Watch out. Once this bathroom is done, will the dining room lighting be next?

Let there be light!

For two weeks we have been at the electrical stage of the reno. We already pulled the wires in preparation, set them in the correct rooms, and planned the electrical layout. We need six receptacles (one GFCI), one recessed shower light, three overhead lights, one over mirror light, one exhaust fan, one TV/internet cable jack, one telephone jack and several switches to control it all. (We ran the wire for the floor heating, but we won't be installing that for some time.) I've refreshed my electrical knowledge with some books from the library, but the biggest challenge has been figuring out how to use a vapour barrier with recessed lights in a flat ceiling -- mixed messages!

For some reason, I thought that we could do all this in one Sunday. But now, as I write the list of work in prose form, it does seem like a lot. On a schematic, it seemed more straight forward.

Two weeks ago, I was thrilled when I installed a GFCI receptical which would protect all the other fixtures in the bathroom. The highlight of last weekend was getting showered with ashphault soot when pulling cables for the overhead lights and switches. It seems that when the roofers replaced the flat roof 3 years ago, the ashphault sifted through the roof boards and has been sitting on the insulation all this time. When we shifted anything in the ceiling, soot rained down on us. I was wearing safety glasses and a mask, but my face still got pretty dirty (see photo). Although I cheered up when I was able to wire the overhead fixtures.

But, there is never enough time! I still didn't get the new bedroom wired until today. We sealed the plumbing stack and window sill, and replaced 95% of the ceiling insulation. Tomorrow we hope to get the vapour barrier up and everything ready for drywall.

We were prepared to call in a pro for the drywalling, but he called today to say that he's too busy to do our job. If you know anybody, let me know. Otherwise, we're gonna try it ourselves next weekend. Wish us luck--we're going to need it!!!

Pulling Cable

We spent our long weekend hauling crap out of the room that was once a bathroom. It has been two weeks, and yet the power drill is still running in reverse. When will we be putting it in forward and actually building a bathroom, not demolishing one?

We spent Friday night at the holy trinity for home renovators: Home Hardware, Rona and Home Depot. I bought myself an electrician's fishing tape - hooray. I've always wanted one. And today, I needed it, as we fed the four different gauges of wire thru the bulkhead down to the basement and to the panel. (We didn't connect it. We'll get an electrician to do that part.)

Thinking ahead, I want our new bedroom/office to be wired with coaxial cable and phone, plus we are putting a laundry rough-in as well, in the event that we move the laundry upstairs for our golden years. So this required pulling two electrical cables: a 14/2 for the washing machine and 10/3 30A cable for the dryer. That flipping 10/3 cable (the orange stuff) is heavy and expensive! Plus, the future dryer location is as far from the electrical panel that you can get with our tiny house, so we needed a lot of it. This was what I had listed as our easy job for the weekend. Relatively clean and quiet work, yet it still took us a few hours. But, I got to use my new fishing tape, and it worked like a charm.

The harder job was tearing up the remainder of the 3/4" plywood subfloor. It was a loud and dirty job, which I'm sure was even less pleasant for our neighbours. Just pepper the roar of the power saw with some colourful cursing when the head of one of the several screws popped off. The quote of the weekend came from Dan when he said: "drywall comes down a lot faster than it goes up".

After two weeks of toiling in this zone, I'm sure that Dan is happy to be starting his new job tomorrow. He's off the hook for a few day. My super brother-in-law is swooping in tomorrow to save us from this hole that we are in. Super Mike to the rescue!

Stepping Out

I have not been very motivated lately to start any major work in our Money Pit, so instead I have been "Stepping Out". I satisfy my reno cravings by helping out friends or by lounging around the MP, enjoying the fruits of our labour. (Not a day goes by that I don't praise the reno gods for the dishwasher in our kitchen. I can't imagine life without it!)

Last weekend was very busy though. I painted at Ally & Ian's new place on Havelock on Saturday and Monday evening. The 3rd floor office is now a tasteful Benjamin-Moore beige with Cloud White trim. Very smart. And on the Sunday, I took a stroll to Upper Montrose with my painting pole to help Denise paint her bathroom a fresh pale blue. (Truth is, I borrowed the pole from Denise, so I was finally returning it!) And as luck would have it, we got a major dump of snow on Friday and my office closed early, so I used the bonus time to help Denise install a new light fixture in her hallway. It looks marvelous (if I do say so myself!)

I can finally see the light!

What would you do if your boyfriend jets off to Vegas for the weekend with his much younger work colleagues? If "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas", then "what happens in Toronto, is likely not worth gossiping about".

In keeping with that slogan, I decided that I had the physical and mental space in the house to finally tackle one of the items in the kitchen reno that has remained incomplete. I remember convincing my friend Chris to drive me across the city just before Christmas (in 2006!) to get the pot lights from Wolfe Electric, so that I would have them to show the electrician during his upcoming visit. We inched through rush hour traffic, purchased the three pot lights and transformer and I was set to install them. The electrician came to the house the next day and he ran the wires from the electrical box to the kitchen for the new microwave range hood, and the under-counter pot lights. He could not install them yet, as we had to replace the drywall, install the new cupboards, install the backsplash tiles, and all that. But he kindly explained to me how to install them, and I jotted it down on a scrap of paper, pictured below.

Nine months passed. Somebody could have had a baby in that time frame, but my lights were still not installed, and my memory of the electrician's tutorial was pretty fuzzy. But then I remembered the instructions. I pulled them out, but the cryptic scribbles didn't make that much sense.

- 2 red leads to black & white in box
- white to top screw on current outlet (white side)
- black to TOP new light switch
- jumper to black to BOTTOM of new light switch (push the jumper into back of switch)

I was baffled as the transformer didn't have two red leads, but it did have two blue leads. Then I remembered - the electrician had told me the instructions for a different transformer/pot light combo that I returned to a different store. Anyway, I improvised. And in this case, the results were not dangerous, and things worked out nicely. No arcing, no blown bulbs - just fully functioning pot lights that light up the fabulous glass tiles in our new kitchen.

So Dan returned from Vegas with stories of being in a night club where Brittany Spears had been, only hours before her botched performance at the MTV Awards. And I bragged about my handy work at home. Brittany's career may be over, but there are lots of lights that remain to be installed!!!

My Love Hate Relationship with Ceiling Fans

I love ceiling fans. They are energy efficient and they don't take up any space. I hate them because they are a pain in the butt to install. All those wires, and you have to stuff them into that tiny box in the ceiling. The remote control, the fan blades, the poorly written installation instructions -- it can take a few hours to put one up. Plus, the decent looking ones are not cheap. But, I have three of them. Until last night, the third one was sitting in the box for over six months. Why? Because it required moving one fan from upstairs to downstairs and the second was a new install. Plus, one had a wall mounted motor controller, while the other was remote control. But the heatwave dictated that this was the time to finally do it.

A few frustrating hours later, we had three installed and fully functioning fans. Victory. Except, when I went to turn on the circuit in the basement, I discovered that the basement lights and the dining room light were no longer working. The lack of light in the basement made it impossible to find the voltmeter with a flashlight. One step forward, two steps back. Well, at least the reduced lighting and the additional fan makes the house feel a bit cooler during this heatwave. And hopefully it won't take six months to get this next repair done.

Super Mom the Electrician

With freshly painted walls, all those mismatching outlets and switches were bringing down the decor on Upper Montrose. So, I went up to show Dee how to rewire them with fresh new white decora outlets. Basically, you just need to turn off the power to the circuit, unfasten the two screws, pull out the outlet, loosen the terminal screws and remove the wires. Take note which wire was connected to which terminal. You will find that each outlet can be wired in a few different ways, so my non-professional advice is to rewire it exactly the way you found it. Then you need to gently push the outlet back into the box, making sure that none of the wires pop off a terminal. The only thing that makes this job difficult is that the wire is very rigid, so it can be hard to bend it and cram all the wires back into the box, without the wires coming off. But once it is in, you just just fasten the outlet to the box with the two screws, put on a fresh new cover plate and then turn the power back on to the circuit. Use a tester to make sure that the outlet works properly and celebrate!

I was very proud of Dee. She rolled up her sleeves and gave it all she had. Some of the screws were caked in paint or had been in place for decades, making them difficult to loosen. Sometimes it took two hands, but she completed her first outlet, just in time to feed the baby. Now that's tough work. She has to feed that little guy every two or three hours. On our first night on the job, we completed the living room outlets and got started on the master bedroom, until it got too dark. So, we called it a night and put little Skittles to bed.

How does this super mom juggle a baby with an electrician apprenticeship? Slowly, but with increasing skill. And she'll have the satisfaction of knowing that she was the one who rewired the outlets herself. Or maybe she'll become my personal shopper in exchange for some handy work around the house. It remains to be seen as neither of us in a huge rush. After all, it is summer!

If you want to rewire your own outlets and need some tips, check out this article or grab a book from the library. Be careful that the power is off and remember what I learned in my high voltage class in University: most people who get electrocuted die from the fall, not from the voltage itself. So just make sure that you're on the ground, or put some pillows around to break your fall.