I said, gosh darn it, we need to get an electrician. You know when aforementioned electricity professional describes your overhead kitchen light as “being perfect for a garage, so don’t throw it out” that you are clearly not hitting the mark on style.
The purpose of having our new electrician friend come over and spend time with us at a rate of $150 per hour was initially so that he could replace all of our bathroom vanity lights. He did such a great job with that and only scared Justin a bit, so we decided to ask him back to install our new kitchen light.
On a lunch break a few weeks back I ran into our local Ikea and purchased the BAROMETER. I liked it enough and it had an Ikea name that I could pronounce. Win Win. Justin also liked it. I should have bought a lottery ticket that day.
Anyway, our electric friend saw the Ikea box and promptly declared that he charges double for “that sh*t” because it always requires extra work. Since he had already taken down the “awesome for garages” light fixture, which is now OUR ONLY LIGHT SOURCE on the first floor (thank you, contractors for screwing a cabinet into the wire cable, thus knocking out power to the back-end of our house) (this is also why I wake up every morning with the desire to start with the strong stuff) I had no choice but to whimper pathetically and beg that he give us some light. How mighty and powerful the tradesmen are!! 
Obviously I’ll have to get up there and tickle the ceiling with a paint brush in the very near future, but here it is in all of its Swedish glory. It has bendy arms, so instead of pointing all the lights straight down in a cook-the-cook formation, I artfully arranged them to shine their goodness on our cabinets.
Now the kitchen has that museum quality that kind of works perfectly since we aren’t able to (touch) put anything away until after they fix the oopsy daisies from construction.
Today is counter top day and this evening will either be sponsored by unbelievable happiness or bourbon, so expect an update either way!
-Kate
love your description of kitchen remodeling at its best. At least you didn’t get the comment my friend got when redoing her bathroom – “as long as you’re opening up the walls, you might as well rewire the whole house.” Which she did. You are too funny. I promise to keep reading…….
Thanks, Robin! We can’t wait to have the Rozens all over to eat something prepared in the kitchen. Do you have Virginia’s number?
Still loving your blog. I too had a horrible fluorescent light in my last kitchen, which was north-facing, so it was the only real source of light in the room. The electrician said that the way the ceiling was done, that I was going to have to live with it or pick something even dimmer. I do not miss that house at all. I do miss Connecticut, though. Looking forward to seeing more about your reno, as I may have a kitchen job in the works soon.
Kitchen remodeling is like war. Best to start mentally preparing now for the battle. Connecticut misses you too!!
[...] only regret is that we didn’t get our electrician friend over before the cabinets went up to put lights in there. That would have been very [...]