And so it goes on

The new kitchen is due a week on Monday. So do we relax? No. We'll soon be on to the job of packing up the contents of our present kitchen - all the pots & pans, glassware & crockery, cutlery, tins & jars, all the general clutter of a working kitchen - so they'll have a clean space to tackle. Instead of relaxing this week, we've spent our time worrying about lighting for the new kitchen. We thought while the electrician was here moving sockets & switches, he could also put up the new lights. And we do need new lights. The present ones are too small for the new all invasive economy light bulbs & the plastic bulb holders are cracking up.

So off we go to the shops. We're faced with a vast range of spots, crystal chandeliers (rather fancy for a kitchen!) etc. We can't even decide what sort of lights we need. Our present lighting gives us 300 watts of good bright flat light, excellent for seeing clearly, plus, on a separate circuit, 100 watts over our dining table. The only thing we're certain of is that we want to retain the idea of a 100 watt light over the dining table area. It's the rest that causes the trouble.

Do we keep the three sources of light? Do we go to spots? Many of the spots give 150 watts per fixture, so do we want just two fixtures & if so where to place them, or do we put up three fixtures in the present positions, maybe with less than the maximum bulb strength? That way we may be able to avoid shadowy spots. The new units come with lighting under the upper units, will these be sufficient to give us good lighting to avoid cutting our fingers off? All we seem to do is raise yet more questions & few answers.

It's not helped by the fact that the sink is in the corner, so we would have to put one fixture over that to ensure good light for washing up in winter. We may be getting a new dishwasher, but that doesn't alter the fact there will inevitably still be some hand washing especially when we have equipment with wood or bone handles, seasoned cast iron pans, fine china & crystal. By the time we've got that light in & one over the dining area, we'd obviously have to have some lighting over the island feature & near the oven, but that would leave the rest of the room looking shadowy.

Oh questions, questions, when will it end?