Last night we got one of those strange Texas storms.  Heavy rains rolled in sometime after we went to sleep, and this morning when I woke up, the birds were chirping, and there was that great smell that happens in the mornings after it rains.

Of course, one of the the first things I do every morning is make a pot of Peet’s coffee, and then open the french doors to our red deck and take a look out back.  When it rains here in Austin, it’s usually a torrential downpour for a couple of hours. 1-2 inches a night isn’t uncommon  I’m guessing that’s what we got last night, as there is a bit of standing water left in some patches of the yard.  I’m gonna have to work on the drainage issues later this year, and try to get the patches of bermuda grass to grow back in.

What I was most interested in was over against my south fence.  Last fall I prepared a couple of beds of bulbs, and over the last few weeks we have been watching and anxiously waiting the spring blooms.  This is the third post in the series of four:

1. the first was planting the beds
2. the second was sprouting bulbs,
3. this post is the third, with the first bloom,
4. and the last one will be  when the daffodils are in full bloom.

Since it is so early (March 1), I’m hoping to get a great display throughout the end of winter, and most of spring.

Who doesn’t love to get something incredible in the mail.  I know I do.  And sometime next month I will.  Danni over at oh, hello friend has done it again.  Last year I was too late to sign up for the package give-away, but this year, I had it starred in my Google Reader, and as soon as I learned about it, I signed up.  And I was still #200+.

Let me just say that I’ve been thinking about what to give, and I’ve got something extra special in store for the person that gets my name.

Stay tuned, because all my regular readers will know what it is when I send it out.

Who puts recessed lighting in a garage?

I do!

My regular readers know that my garage is the testing ground for all my modern home projects.  To me, the primary job of a garage is to hold your car(s), but so often it doubles as a workshop.  This is what happens to me, and about 150 million other Americans, who need a place to store their weed wackers, extra cans of paint, tools and bicycles.

And like the hundreds of thousands of other garage owners, mine has horrible lighting.  No windows, and only a single bare bulb in the middle of the ceiling.  The only real way to see what I’m working on is to open the big garage door.  In the spring and fall that’s OK to do, but Summer is way too hot, and the Winter is too cold (I sound like the Poppa from the 3-bears).  But unlike that big furry guy, I have thumbs and am not afraid of working with electricity.

In the last post I began to tell you how I did the carpentry part of installing recessed lighting.  Locating the lights, checking twice, and cutting the holes.  Today, I want to talk about how I did the electrical wiring.

Back when I was 19, I apprenticed for a while to be an electrician.  Now I’m not licensed, or certified, or any of that stuff, but I do know my way around a wire nut.  Please do not attempt any of this if you are not 100% comfortable with working with electricity.  It can be dangerous, even deadly.  You have been warned.

I got a lot of exercise with this home project, too.  I’ll bet you didn’t know that home repair makes for a great weight loss plan.  Since I was doing this job all by myself, I had to constantly run back and forth between the breaker box, up and down a ladder, and in and out of the attic.  Up, down, in out, repeat.

If you haven’t yet read the first part of installing Ikea recessed lights, go do it now.  Because I’m about to begin right where I left off.

Stripped Bare wires

Since I had just pulled the wires through the open holes in the ceiling, I began to strip back the outer casing of the Romex 14-gauge wiring with a sharp box knife.  I like to start about 12 inches from the end and just make a nice slit down the center of the white casing.  I’m also always careful to a) not cut myself, and b) not slice either the black or white wires inside the cable.  Slicing down the middle exposes all three wires, including the ground, which is wrapped in brown paper.  I cut away the paper to expose the entire ground, and then trim off the loose white casing.  Now I’ve got 3 foot long wires, and I’m ready to make connections.

Each of the Ikea Blixt fixtures has punched holes with a slit for the wires to go through.  I use a flat blade screw-driver and punch out one (it doesn’t really matter which one).  I then push the Romex cable through the hole, and add a plastic shim between the cable and metal edge of the box (you can find these shims in the electrical aisle of your Home Depot or Lowes.  I also move one of the spring loaded clamps on the side of the electrical box on the light to open the whole thing up.  Then I push both cables through the plastic shim, and all the way into the box.

Then it’s time to strip the Hot (black) and neutral (white) wires.  At this point I still haven’t turned off the main power to the garage, at the circuit breaker box.  I’m not working with any live wires – yet.  I’ve just installed these wires, and first want to connect them in parallel to each of the three lights.  Parallel in this case, means all the same color wires are connected together blacks, white, and grounds.  (If I were going to wire them in series, I’d do it differently).  After that’s done, I’ll pull a wire from one of the lights, down the wall, and connect it to the switch.  That’s when I turn off the power – when I’m working with a LIVE circuit.

When connecting the three Blixt lights, I decided to do it in parallel. That way if one light burned out, the others in the ceiling would still work.

Using the 14-gauge setting on my wire stripper I pull back about 3/4 of an inch to expose the bare copper wire.  I twist the all the black together (the two Romex wires) using my lineman’s pliers, and then wrap the stranded copper wire from the canned light fixture around them.  I then cap all that with a wire nut.  All in all there are three black together – Romex from one light, Romex from another light, and the fixture.  Then I carefully tuck that inside the box, and repeat with the ground (green) and White (neutral) wires.  I’m careful to make sure the wire nut completely covers all the bare copper on each of the black and white wires.  Twisting the wire nuts can be tough, but it’s a very important step to make sure it is tight.

When all the connections are made, I push the wires inside the box, replace the spring loaded cover, and carefully push the entire blixt light into the ceiling, box first.  The box slides through the hole, and the recessed part of the light slides up, too.  There are little spring clamps that hold the entire thing in place, making for a neat install.

Once the holes were cut, I simply inserted the recessed lighting fixtures into the ceiling

Now it was time to turn off the power at the breaker box for the garage.

Carefully I went over to the switch on the wall, and used my wire tester to make sure that there was no power in the box.  The last thing I want is a little surprise when I begin to strip the wires.  I’ve been shocked before, and it is NOT fun.

Earlier in the week, I cut out the drywall, and replaced the old 1-switch box with a much larger, and newer blue 4-switch box.  Eventually I want to have 3 switches (inside garage, outside garage, and attic lights) and a fan control all next to the door in one central spot.  I had to climb into the attic with my flashlight and fish a line from the attic down the wall to the switch box.  This can be the most difficult part, if you don’t know what to do.  I’ve spent hours searching for the right location before, and was hoping that this time would be easier.

I knew approximately where the wall with the switch was, so I carefully climbed around the attic until I was above that spot.  Then I began to look for the wires that came from the breaker box and went down the wall to the switch (the power has to come from somewhere).  I found the spot, and saw that the hole in the ceiling joist was large enough to put another cable through.  I got lucky!  Sometimes you need to drill another hole in a stud or joist – which I don’t like to do if I can help it).  One way to check if you are in the right area is to shine a flashlight through the hole and then go down to the box on the wall and see if you see any light.  If you do, you are in the right place!

The key tool for this job is a Fish Tape.  You can find them on Amazon, or in the electrical aisle at the hardware store.  Basically it’s a long coat hanger.  A slightly flexible metal rod that goes inbetween the wall used to pull wires.  I pulled out about 5 feet of the metal rod, and began to gently push it through the hole in the attic joist and through the wall.  Then I climbed out of the attic and looked at the switch box.  I could see the fish tape.  If you have ever tried to do this, you know how lucky this is to get it on the first try.

You can see the fish tape sticking out from between the wall and the electrical box. This really helps pull wires from the attic through the wall.

Now I had to connect a new piece of Romex to the Fish Tape.  I did this with black electrical tape.  Then I went back up into the attic and pulled out the fish tape with the wire attached.  And up came the cable.  The hard part was done!

I connected the wires in the attic to the light on the end (the same way as before), and then began to connect the wires to the switch.  That part is mostly the same, but instead of using wire nuts to connect the wires to each other, I connected them to the switch.  But there is a specific way to do this so it all works.

Basically there are three cables coming into the box – the hot line (existing), one line for the outside lights (existing), and the one I just pulled down from the attic (new).

I like to label each and every wire. Here you can clearly read what the wire is to be used for. Sometimes I use a code, and then keep track of it in my Moleskin Home Journal

First I carefully marked each cable, and then disconnected everything.  I had to connect all the grounds together (and to the switches), then connect all the whites together with a great big wire nut.  Easy enough.  The tricky part is with the Hot (black) wires.  I took the hot black wire (coming from the circuit box), and connected two new short pieces of black wire to it.  These are called pigtails.  This turned one wire into two.  It’s like making a Y, if you catch my drift.  Then I put one end of one pigtail into the bottom screw of one switch, and the other into the bottom end of the other switch.  This was the power from the circuit box coming into the switch.  Then I put the black wire from the outside lights into the top screw of one switch, and the black wire from the new line into the other switch.  There are NO white wires going to either of the switches.

I think about it like this – the power comes into the switch, and then leaves to go to the light.  Here’s a photo of everything put together.

Here are two rocker light switches installed in the 4 switch box. The one on the right is for the Blixt lights, and the one on the left is for the outside light. My next project will be to add a switch for the lights in the attic, as well as a switch for some fans.

Then it was just a matter of covering the blue box and exposed wires with an outlet cover, and turning the breaker back on.

recessed lighting in a garage

This is what it looks like when it was all done.  I turned off all the lights in my garage and you can see that the bench is well lit, with no shadows.

Where can you find 3 recessed halogen lights for under $20?  Ikea of course.  These little lights (they are about 3″ across) come 3 to a pack and require a bit more assembly work than the usual Ikea project.

But I’ve put a lot of Ikea stuff together – bookcases, TV consoles, Dining room tables, and even beds, and bathroom vanities.  So I consider myself an advanced Ikea user.

This is part one of the project.  I wanted to get it done in one day, but because people kept calling me, I had to split the project into two days.  So, this is also going to be a 2-part blog entry.  The first part (the one you are reading right now), will be more about the carpentry – locating the lights, cutting the holes in the ceiling, and installing the fixtures.  Part 2 – will be about doing the electrical wiring, connecting the switch, and insulating the attic after the lights are installed.

Now for the disclaimer.  I’m not a carpenter, or an electrician.  Do not consider these instructions as the way to do this job.  This is a personal project in my own house, and not a guide on how to install Blixt recessed lights.  If you are installing recessed lights, please consult a licensed electrician with any questions.  Working with electricity is DANGEROUS, and all safety precautions and local building codes need to be followed.  You have been warned.

Now that I’ve successfully scared you, it’s time to get to business.  If your garage is like mine, its’ pretty dark.  And if you have done any research, you know how hard it is to find modern lighting designs for a garage.  It seems like everybody just throws up some 4-foot fluorescent fixtures, and moves on  to the next job.  But I HATE fluorescent lights.  Especially in the garage.  When it’s cold outside the lights flicker, and I get these weird headaches from the cool color temperature.  So I had to find an alternative.  And it had to be modern.

What’s more modern than recessed lights?  Ikea recessed lights?  Ok, so not everybody puts them in a garage, but as you know my garage is my testing ground for all my home projects.  The area above my workbench is a dark.  There are no windows or natural light near it, so I needed to do something to brighten the area.  First I put a coat of paint against the wall, and while that helped, it wasn’t enough.

My workbench area is dark. I don't have an windows or natural light near it.

So I turned to the Internet (just like you) to get inspiration, and find some resources. I began to look for modern light fixtures, and found tons of very very cool stuff. Stainless steel lights, halogen lights, and unique designs. But there was one problem. They all were expensive. Crazy expensive. Ferrari expensive. I don’t understand why everyone bumps up the price 200% more when the words modern design is used. This is the 21st century – modern should be affordable.

That’s when I learned about the Ikea recessed lights. They are called Blixt, and as soon as I did, I jumped in my car and headed to my local Ikea to bet some.  At only $19.95 for 3 they are a great deal, but as usual, a LOT of assembly is required.  I consider myself a good DIYer, so I was up for the challenge.  This project by far has been the most involved, and used the most tools.  But I did it in a weekend.  It wasn’t too hard.

The Ikea Blixt lights look a bit different in real life than they do on the Ikea website

This is what the actual Blixt light looks like, and the box that it comes in.  They are a little different than the picture on the Ikea website – I’m guessing because the Ikea photos are of the European models, and in America, there are different Electrical codes. The ones I bought have the UL certification sticker, so I’m pretty sure they are safe to use in America. But they also need to be hard wired, and while this is a bit scary to do, I’ve installed lights before and am familiar with my local codes and safe work practices.

I wanted lights to be centered on the workbench, so I measured the center, and 1/4 and 3/4 areas, and marked them with blue painter's tape

Using a nail to mark the ceiling above the workbench. Click the photo to make bigger.

Once I had the lights, I wanted to make sure they shone on the center of the workbench. I brought out my trusty measuring kit, and found the 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 areas on my workbench. I then used some blue painter’s tape to X marks the spot on the bench. Blue tape is easily removable, that’s why I used it. Now I had to transfer the marks on the bench to the ceiling. This was done with a plumb-bob. No, that’s not my tall friend Robert. A plumb bob is just a weight on a string. Climbing up on my ladder, I held the string against the ceiling and let the weighted end hang down over the workbench. (It was impossible to take a picture of this process by myself.) I moved the string against the ceiling until it stopped swinging and was centered directly over the x-marks the spot. Then I hammered a nail into the ceiling right above the mark. This was the center. Now I had to check the attic to make sure there was a clear spot for the fixture.

Up in the attic I find the nail poking through (hard to see in this photo)

Now I had to climb into the attic. If you think my garage is dark, it’s even darker up there. I carefully crawled around until I was in the general area above my workbench. I didn’t want to step through the ceiling, or fall. Once I was in the right spot, I used my flashlight to search for the tiny nail poking through the ceiling. I had to push away the blown paper insulation, but was eventually able to find the tiny spike. Amazingly it was almost perfectly centered between the studs in the ceiling. There are several warnings on-line, as well as on the packaging about safe distances for the ikea fixture. I didn’t want any fire hazard, so I measured twice, and made sure that I was clear on all sides.

I needed to drill a 72 mm hole for the lights - that's 2.83 inches for you nerds. But Home depot doesn't sell a 72mm bit. I used a 3 inch hole saw instead.

After checking all three nails for clearance, I climbed down from the attic and up on my ladder to cut the holes. According to the packaging, I needed to drill a 72mm hole. Too small, and the electrical box wouldn’t slide up into the ceiling. Too big, and the hole would be bigger than the flange on the recessed lights, and they wouldn’t sit right. But I’m in America, and it’s not easy to find metric hole saws. 72mm is equal to 2.83 inches. And Home Depot only sells 2 3/4″ and 3″ drill bits. I decided that 3″ wasn’t too big, and would work. And it did.

If you have never cut through a ceiling, it is a messy job. Gypsum board, spray on popcorn, and insulation fly everywhere. Thankfully I was in the garage, so the mess was easy to clean up. But if I install these in the living room or kitchen, I’ll put down plastic drop cloths everywhere to collect all the dust.

Once the holes were cut, I simply inserted the recessed lighting fixtures into the ceiling

I decided to do most of the work from the garage, instead of in dark attic.

Before inserting the lights into the ceiling, I decided to pull the wire through the holes. You have two choices when wiring the lights. You can choose to work in the attic, or you can stand on a ladder and work in the room. Since my attic is so dark, and cramped, I opted to stand on a ladder, and do the wiring from inside the garage. I grabbed a roll of ROMEX 14 gauge 2x lighting wire and pulled the cable through each cut out carefully. I didn’t want to tear the drywall. And I was sure to pull enough wire through for some extra, too. I hate having to work with short wires. Up until now, I didn’t have to turn off the power. The only time I did was when I was making the final connections to the new light-switch Stay tuned! I’ll talk about that in Part 2.

I was planning on doing a post today about this really cool bank of drawers I’m making for my workbench. But instead of spending my spare time today cutting the pieces for the drawers, I had to fix a clogged drain under my kitchen sink.
I love to cook, but, it’s not often that I make soup from scratch. Usually we just pop a can of soup open and toss it in the microwave. But today, the weather is sort of grey, and a bit rainy, so I decided to make some bean soup from scratch. That’s a whole different blog post, too. Because while I was cleaning everything up, my kitchen sink and garbage disposal went on strike.
I had peeled a bunch of carrots, and peeled a few onions to go in the soup, and when I turned on the in-sink erator, all I got was a mini-whirpool of carrot and onion.  Dis-gus-ting!

So I turned on the garbage disposer and instead of watching everything wash down, I got a little whirpool of onion skin, and carrot peel soup.

I tried toggling the garbage disposal on and off.  That didn’t help.  I tried to use the hand-held squirter to use water pressure to clear the drain, but that didn’t work either.  What was strange, was that the other side of the sink worked fine.  No clog on the right hand side of the sink, only the left side didn’t work.

large flat blade screwdriver, and medium sized channe-lock pliers

So I grabbed a few towels, my Ace bucket, and a screwdriver, and set of blue channel-lock pliers (thanks Dad for that great gift), and got down on my hands and knees.  After clearing out everything from under the sink, recycling, dish-soap, and cleaners, and other stuff, I took a look at the plumbing and immediately knew what to do.

Under the sink may first look scary, but it’s really quite simple.  Even though my Dad was 2000 miles away, he had already told me what to do.  Between his handyman lessons as things went wrong in the house I grew up in, and all the hundreds of hours of DIY TV that I’ve watched, I  felt I was prepared to clean the drain under the sink for the first time by myself.

After clearing everything out, I got down on my hands and knees and took a look to see what was what.  It really wasn’t hard to figure out what was happening, and within 15 minutes everything was fixed.  I managed to save $80 by not calling a plumber, too!

There are three things to identify under every kitchen sink.  There is the Hot and cold water supply.  These are small pipes that come out of the wall and are usually copper.  There are two mini valves to turn off the water supply.  I knew I didn’t have to touch these, because no water was leaking anywhere.  NOTE!  If you have a leak under the sink, or at your faucet, these would be the first things I would turn off to stop any more water from leaking.

Next I saw the wires and hoses leading to the dishwasher.  If you don’t have a dishwasher, then just forget about this step.  Since I didn’t do anything to the dishwasher, I knew these weird hoses weren’t the problem either.

Finally, there are these white pipes that come from the bottom of the sink, and bend and twist around merging together, and finally disappearing into the wall at the back of the cabinet.  This is where the problem was.  I knew this because they come from the bottom of the sink right where the drain is.

1970's era garbage disposal, and lots of pipes.

On the left side (the side that was clogged) you can see the big black ugly garbage disposal, and on the right there are all these white pipes.  There is one white pipe running horizontal between the garbage disposal, and the right side, and I knew that’s where my problem was.  How did I know this?  Because only the left side of the sink was clogged.  The right side of the sink drained fine.

Somewhere in that horizontal pipe was a clog.  Now I had to get it out and clean it out. Where the white disposal drain meets the disposal there is a metal bracket with two screws.  I positioned a bucket below, and carefully undid the screws.  I don’t think this thing had been taken apart in a long time, because the screws were STUCK.  And once I got them out the metal plate slid out of the way, but the black gasket behind the plate stayed PUT.  I had to use a little Gentle Persuasion, to get the seal broken.  And when I did, the water came gushing out.  Thankfully I had the bucket in place.

There are two small screws that hold a petal plate onto the disposal. Behind this plate is a black rubber gasket that prevents water from leaking out. It's a simple low pressure joint, but once I broke the seal on the rubber gasket, all the water leaked out.

Thankfully, I knew that the water would leak out, so I put my 2.5 gal ACE hardware bucket in the proper place to collect all the yucky water.

Suddenly the sink above was empty, and all the gross water had drained into the bucket.  Problem #1 solved.  The sink is clean.  But that didn’t solve the entire problem.  Somewhere in the horizontal white pipe was a clog.  I took my Blue Channel Lock Pliers pliers and carefully loosened the white nut on the right hand side of the horizontal drain pipe.  I didn’t want to strip the plastic threads on the pipe.  This was one home repair job I was going to do without having to take a trip to the home center.

I used the channel locks to loosen the other side of the disopsal pipe, once all the water drained out.

Once the white nut was loosened, I could gently twist the pipe back and forth and it came completely free.  That’s when I saw this:

mmmm Carrots!

The pipe was jam packed with chopped up carrot peel.  I took this outside to my compost pile, and used the screwdriver to clean it all out.  Then I used a hose to fully clean the pipe.  When I was done it was good as new.

Putting everything back together took 5 min.  I just reversed all the steps (Installation is the reversal of removal), and turned on the water to check for leaks.  None!

Water running down the sink, just like it should.

When I was all done, I could do the dishes, and put back all the stuff that belongs under the kitchen sink.  Since it was only 1:45 in the afternoon, I didn’t have a beer.

OK, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with a garage, or house repair, or decorating. But my Westie loves his squirrel.

An antique touch to the modern glass door bookcases in my wife’s office.

star shape glass cabinet knob

reproduction antique green glass knob with brushed silver hardware

I spent several wonderful days during the summer of 2008 at the Agriturismo La Rocca. It’s one of a number of incredible little Bed and Breakfasts in Italy, that we visited that idyllic summer.  Instead of spending time making photographs, I just relaxed.  And ate.

This is where I easily put on 5 lbs.

The lounger on the right was mine

Lemon Gelato so fresh it makes your mouth pucker

Italian Path

I collect old labware. It makes me still feel like a biochemist.

Ceramic Labware

Coors Ceramic Glassware

White Ceramic Crucibles

White Ceramic Glassware

White Ceramic Mortar & Pestle