What is this electrician doing?
We came home today and had light housings in our ceiling. This was a surprise, since we had never picked out the light fixtures that we wanted. The plan was always to have basic recessed lighting, but we expected to have some options: different sizes and styles, different energy-saving properties, etc. Apparently not. Three basic six-inch lights had been installed down the middle of the room.
Where did these come from?
Our kitchen is a fairly large room. The old kitchen had track lighting with three lights across the center of the room, and anyone could see that it produced an inadequate amount of light. However, the electrician working on the new kitchen seems to think that all we need are three lights, albeit slightly better-placed in that they span the length of the room, rather than the width. The half of the kitchen with the lower ceiling has exactly one fixture.
The placement of the lights was another surprise. Even if we were happy with the style of light fixture, they were not where I had asked to have them placed. I asked for six or eight recessed lights arranged in rectangles around the two sections of the ceiling. This would produce more light from more angles, reducing shadows and putting more light on the countertops instead of the floor in the middle of the room. Nothing like what’s actually there now.
Aside from the lighting issues, I look around the kitchen at the wiring job done so far and am perplexed at the number and layout of electrical boxes. There aren’t nearly enough slots in boxes for the number of outlets and controls that I think we need. By my count, we need switches for overhead lights, the pendant light above the sink, main wall under-cabinet lighting, other wall under-cabinet lighting, the back porch light, and the disposal, plus two controls for the hood fan and lights and the usual kitchen counter outlets every three feet or so. If you look at the photos in earlier posts and below, there aren’t nearly that many electrical boxes. There’s supposed to be an electrical inspection on Monday, but I don’t see how that could possibly happen given the amount of work left to do. Especially since the electrician isn’t planning to be here tomorrow (Friday).
A counter-height outlet and a connection for under-cabinet lights... but how will we control them?
All of this happened today, but what didn’t happen today is just as frustrating. At George’s request I went next door at 10:00pm last night to ask our neighbors if the electrician could get into their basement this morning to check out the electrical service coming in from the pole outside. They agreed, but the electrician never showed up. He still needs to get access to their basement at some point, but he didn’t bother to go when I arranged for it.
I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s just a particularly frustrating day in that we had some work done but a good amount of it is wrong. At this point it will probably end up setting us back a few days while we try to get the electrician back to redo today’s work.
One light for this half of the room!
Hopefully some better news tomorrow…