THE CAVENDER DIARY

Jamie and I got a lot of H-Depot gift cards for Christmas.  I mean,  A LOT. And that’s not a problem. Far from one…..In fact, we were so excited that we couldn’t decide what to get first. My first impulse was power tools…..I NEED a table saw…and I NEED an impact driver. If you haven’t heard of an impact driver…it’s kind of a cross between a drill and an electric hammer…… and who doesn’t need one of those ? Absolutely love them.

Well…..we didn’t get either … 

We invested in can lights,,,, I’d forgotten just how pricey they were. 20 bucks a can …and 10 bucks a light bulb. It adds up fast.

We’ve put them in almost every room of the house so far, I can count 23 off the top of my head. But we kept skipping the first room in the house.

Here’s a shot of the living room ceiling ( technically the dining room, but who needs one of those ) before ….

It’s really a pretty easy process, since I tapped into the lights in the entry. All I had to do was make sure the new cans were positioned between ceiling studs…..After what I thought was a carefull measuring,  I poked holes in the drywall with a screwdriver and inserted pieces of cable, then scooted up into the attic to see if the wires were between studs.

They WERE perfectly between the studs……( huge sigh of relief ) …….so I cut holes with a drywall saw … it looks like a bread knife with really jagged teeth. Sometimes, if I’m feeling particularly  lazy, I just use a steak knife. Anyhoo, after a little sawing and a large rain of dust and insulation..I had 4 perfect holes, and after a quick wire twisting ( white on white, black on black ) the whole unit slid right up into the hole and was ready to go ……

In almost no time at all ( well maybe 2 hours ) I had 4 of these….Thrilled , THRILLED I tell you!!

And here’s what it looks like with no flash and just the warm glow of the new cans …….AHHHHH, ….BASK

Now there is a can in each corner of the room to highlight all the assorted “knickknacks” …YEAH.

Perfect….

Well, maybe not exactly perfect………I had to jinx the whole process and say, “This is going so easy “….bad luck every time. While we were enjoying the finished product…..there was something……just…… not …..right ….

OOH GOD!!!…..One of them was off by a FOOT….a whole FREAKING FOOT!!! I cut the wrong hole in the ceiling ……

( so check the next post and I’ll show you how I fixed it )