Well…it’s over.  If you celebrate, how was your Christmas?  We had a beautiful couple of days with family, friends, fun, lots of good food and thoughtful gifts.  I’m not anticipating a lot of participation in the DIY Project Parade this week, but it’s open if you’ve got something to show off.  

We were able to conquer another project in the kitchen. Just a small one but it makes a huge difference. I always consider lighting when doing a makeover and at the reveal, it’ll be a big in our ‘wow’ factor. Our kitchen has two areas, the original floor plan and an expansion where maybe there was a back porch at one time (although there is a basement underneath but it’s obvious by the walls that it was an original part of the kitchen). Anyway – there were two lights.  One ceiling light in the expansion which is where our French doors, refrigerator and pantry is and one over-the sink-light.  Nothing else.  

Mr. DIY and friend (thanks DJ!) installed some recess lighting along with the pot rack/light fixture (remember our $5 Habitat garage sale find?).  

Thanks to our friends at True Value, we were able to install a dimmer to change the atmosphere at the touch of a slider.  Now we can have bright light when cooking and dimmer light when entertaining or very dim just to see and we’re using energy efficient bulbs so no difference in the electric bill.  

Here is the process in pictures.  It was a lot easier than I anticipated and looks like something even I can do (which is great news – because I want to change the builder grade beige switches to something newer that matches the new switchplates throughout the house some day).

We also changed the junction box.  Something that didn’t need done but live and learn. So it’s being patched…

We’re painting so final look coming at the reveal!  🙂  Hopefully soon!  Kitchens take a lot longer than any other project we’ve tackled.  We’re behind schedule!

NEXT WEEK – SHARE YOUR 2010 RECAP of favorite/all DIY projects!