houzzwerk: how to place vanity lights

Bathroom Workbook: How to Get Your Vanity Lighting Right

we are in control (of the lights)

The Green House Lady has been after us (appropriately so...) for having our outdoor lights on all day. It is amazingly dark in a 'hood with very few street lamps. Before the time change, when the sun set before we left work, we'd come home and stumble like drunks to the darkened front door. So we'd leave the outside lights on all day to keep the neighbors from talking.

Part of the reason for the delay was for us to figure out what to do with the switches at the front door. An automated or remotely controlled switch is not available in our switches of choice (Adorne). Further complicating things is that whatever switch cover is used has to be shaved back on one side because it interferes with the trim.

After further thought (prompted by said Green House Lady), we went with this switch by Honeywell:

What's cool about this thing is that you set it once and it adjusts the turn-on times in the evening and turn-off times in the morning based on sunset and sunrise at your latitude and longitude. You also get to provide an offset to set your preference on how much before sunset or sunrise you want your lights to turn on. With the ability to locally override and set a different schedule for everyday, it has quite a bit of flexibility. Furthermore, it automatically accounts for daylight savings time and burns your program into its memory (so no need to worry about a battery).

Convenience and saving electricity. Sweet!

let there be (LED) light

When our house got bulbed, the electricians installed 50-watt halogens that emit 900 lumens (see photos above; wished they had talked to us before putting those babies in...). Since we really really want LEDs (energy efficiency and all), the next question was: which ones? Cause there are many, many, many to choose from...

The first challenge was figuring out what type of bulb we had/needed. This handy chart Rosetta stones bulb nomenclature:

So based on the bulb we have, we have a PAR series (a PAR30 to be exact). As it turns out PAR30s come in different sizes, namely length and diameter, so the next step was to measure an existing bulb to see what our target was.

We also measured the diameter of the hole in the can to see what our maximum allowable space is (although I wouldn't push getting a bulb to the edge given heat dissipation concerns...).

The next challenge was figuring out what temperature of light we wanted. Interestingly enough, this is somewhat cultural in that it depends on what you are used to. Because we Americans have grown up with Tom Edison's incandescents, we favor warmer light (cooler temperatures; higher temps correspond with whiter light; think of "white hot" and hotter = whiter). In contrast, Europeans embraced fluorescents which emit a cooler (higher temperature) light, which better mimics daylight. At first I thought we would want a more accurate representation of daylight, but holy-moly does it look like an operating room with light like that. We're 'mericans, dammit! We like our light warm and cuddly: give me 3000 degrees Kelvin or give me death!

The next challenge was finding bulbs that (1) fit, (2) didn't cost an arm and a leg, and (3) rocked the aesthetics. After a bit of trial and error on all fronts (thank you, Lowes, for liberal return policies!), we discovered our bulb: the Utilitech Pro PAR30 Flood. Utilitech, a Lowes brand, is highly rated by Consumer Reports (as are almost all LEDs) and comes in at $25 a pop (the price just dropped by five bucks last week). It's a wee bit longer than the original halogens, but not enough to look weird. And the bulb is gorgeous! It looks a little futuristic and has an orangey center (some filter, I reckon, to warm up the light). They've just upgraded the light to where it emits a nice consistent wash of warm light (the previous version, when used as a spot on some art we had, had orangish spots at the edge of the emitted light cone; drove the bride crazy...). They use 15 watts (compared to the 50 of the halogens and the 90 of an equivalent incandescent) and emit 790 lumens (less than the 900 of the halogens, but it seems to be enough). 

What is was...

What it is now!

The light is a hint whiter than the halogens, but not by much. I think we'll be happy with them (we'd better be: we'll be living with them for the next 25 years!).

Halogen on the left; LCD on the right.

Amidst our early experiments, we mistakenly purchased some BR30s. This particular BR30 is also made by Utilitech (and comes it at a sweet twenty bucks a piece). It has a cooler light and, given it's shape, spreads the light quite a bit more. They didn't work in the downstairs cans (stuck out too far and thus appeared too bright), but they worked great in the two, deeper cans upstairs. Not as interesting aesthetically as the PAR30 above, but they gets the job done. 

The plan is to buy four bulbs a month until the house is fully LEDed. The PAR30s we're using inside are not designed for outdoor use, so we'll have to find a different bulb for the outside cans. Perhaps the fully enclosed BR30s shown above.

still punching: plugs, art lights, doorbell, wall hung, HVAC woes

We've been out of town the past week, so just a quick note (with follow-on dancing with architectures coming up!).

floor plugs!

The floor plugs are in! Took a while to find the right aluminum (not brass) plugs, but here they are:

eyeballs!

All but one of the eyeballs is in. We would have preferred something flatter with a slot, but eyeballs is all that works with these particular cans (make note of that if you are canning up your house). We had debated whether or not to bother with the eyeballs, but we're glad we did. They focus the light on the art (as they should) but also reduce the glare from plain ole cans.

wall hung!

Got the drywall behind the wall hung toilet replaced with Hardie backer and tile. That should hold the toilet better.

doorbell (and chime)!

Finally chased down the doorbell chime (no thanks to moderndoorbells.com...). Turns out they sent it to our old apartment and not the bride's place of bidness as requested. Back when it didn't show up (and showed up at UPS as being delivered), I verified the order (it was correct) and sent the doorbell folks an email. After not getting a response, two weeks later I sent another email. No response again. Went to call them, but no number is listed at their web site. Buyer beware: If you don't get your product you are probably ess oh el.

The good news is that the chime works with the doorbell button and it now glows as it should (very cool) and rings the chimes. Yay!

HVAC issues continue...

Still no resolution to the HVAC issues we've been having. I found the installer instructions for the dampers online and read 'em and then took a closer look at the dampers. Discovered that one of the dampers (the one to the master, of course) is not wired correctly.

Notice how the wires are different?

I'd fix it, but since, as a homeowner, "I don't know what I'm doing" and would void the warranty, I'll let the "professionals" fix it. I did learn from the installer's instruction how to override the electronic control and manually open the damper. Cool air, my friends, flowing into the bedroom! There is hope!

moments of bliss

week 45: walls, landscaping, mailbox, floors, eyebrows, gas, glass, handrails, light, killer bugs

Lots going on as the builder punches the house like a boxer practicing for Vegas!

garden walls

The biggest addition since last week are the garden walls, four walls in the front yard. They haven't been painted yet, but they are in. Bigger than we thought, but they do a great job of carrying the neoplasticism to the front yard.

The neighbors are a bit perplexed by the walls (and think I'm crazy once I start rambling incessantly about neoplasticism). One of immediate neighbors is a designer, so he understands art history and has heard of Piet Mondrian (and even asked if we were building in some primary colors). Starting to describe is as "Mondrian as expressed in landscaping". However, not a lot of folks know who Mondrian is...

landscaping touches

The landscaping, as contracted, is nearly complete (we will do more later). The only things missing are the feather grasses in the front yard.

No more porta-pottie; all square wave!

The red bud is planted in the patio. When it gets cooler (and we have time...). we'll be modifying the hole to be more "random" and irregular.

We planted a blue fescue in the sidewalk up front (shade tolerant). We love this hole in the sidewalk.

The fescue from a distance. It tells guests "Whoa! That there sidewalk ends soon!"

The landscaping dude has installed these things he calls gators, which are real handy. You quickly fill them up and then they slowly disperse water over eight or nine hours.

Here you can see why it's called a gator: It looks like an alligator snout biting the tree!

This Texas Mountain Laurel is off the south side of the house and will be inside the fence line. The builder and landscape installer were perplexed as to why this beautiful tree would go here. It's there for the privacy and enjoyment of the office. We've learned that unless we have a visceral negative response to something, it's best to go with what the designers come up with. They're the pros, after all.

Our German-built greenhouse, something we brought from the old place, fits right in.

mailing it in

Finally decided on a mailbox: the "Etsy" box, designed and built by an artist. Does a great job of tying in with the wood on the soffit and ceiling. We were originally planning on putting the box on the wall near the front door, but given the handycraft of the box (it's too nice to put in the rain!), we decided to place it under the eave. Turns out to be a good choice.

floored

The floors are getting re-epoxyed (part of the overall installation), so the death tape was out to keep folks out until the floors cured. Stinky as all hell in there.

hot

It was 108 yesterday in Austin. Because of the epoxy, they turned off the AC. When we could finally go inside the house, after 24 hours of curing, the temp inside had only risen to 85. Not bad, not bad...

eyebrows painted

The eyebrows are touched up and looking spiffy!

gassed up

and under pressure!  Still need to get the gas connected. We have a certificate of occupancy, but we have no gas yet. Hope we get gas (the warming kind) before we move in!

glass rails

The glass rails are in, and they are gorgeous! Keeps everything open.

temporary handrails

The original plan was to not have any handrails to preserve the clean look of the stairwell. However, after going up and down the stairs several times, we found ourselves (and others) using the bare walls as props. Plan B was to have the the metal railing guys come in and build a single piece rail about the inside of the stairwell (this was a suggestion [a good one] from the architect). It was expensive, but it was going to fit in well with the rail. However, we did have some reservations about these guys since they had no sense of their surroundings when they installed the rails shown above, burning the hell out of everything around them (I had visions of them driving off, hi-fiving for a job well done, while the house burned behind them). The builder had the same qualms. Furthermore, they were ssslllloooowwww. We needed handrails quick, and three weeks later, nothing, while everything else around them was done (and therefore more susceptible to scorch damage). 

The last straw was when they did finally show up to fab onsite and discovered it was going to be harder than they thought (which is code for "more money, please"). We sent them on their way and went forward with Plan C, temporary handrails:

Which we'll replace later with Plan D, these:

with the wood rail in hickory. We ordered and received the hardware already, and it is impressively solid and heavy (and beautifully neoplastic!).

let there be light (in the stairwell)

We took time earlier in the week to connect the flowers to the IKEA lights in the stairwell. The builder was happy because he thought the flowers had been tossed. I found them while looking into and testing every drawer and cabinet in the house.

The plan is to ultimately restore a couple schoolhouse lights from the 1930s and hang them here. Spoke to a friend who does immaculate restoration work, and he's interested in fixing them up. It will be nice to have a wee bit of actual 1930s bling in a house with direct design ties back to the 1930s.

a visitor

Saw this bejeweled bug hanging out on the fence this past week. My buggy Facebook friends say he's an assassin bug! Kind of like a spider with six legs, they kill other bugs and drink their juices. Yum!