It's a fairly simple job: figure out the number of lights needed and where to put them, drill holes in the ceiling, wire in the lights, then take out the old one and patch the hole. It's a small kitchen, so I figured it would take me a few hours tops (patching and painting not included).
Yeah, no.
Having been raised on watts and knowing jack-all about lumens, I guessed at five 4" lights. I'd already measured out where I wanted them (with the help of BIL4), which was an adventure in and of itself in that everywhere I wanted a light there seemed to be a joist getting in the way. But adjustments were made and a layout determined.
I have now determined that it takes a period of adjustment and accommodation to the idea of drilling holes in the ceiling before one actually starts putting 4" holes in said ceiling. All told, it took me about four hours to drill the five holes. Of course I spent most of that time moving bits of tape around and contemplating the layout.** And since I had places to be and people to see, drilling the holes was the only thing I accomplished on Saturday.
The job for Sunday, then, was to install the new lights and take down the old one. And it was here that the cancer reminded me that it can't really be ignored. To illustrate, here's how the day went:
1. Climb the ladder into the ninety degree attic and position the first light.
2. Climb down and check the positioning.
3. Rest for thirty minutes.
4. Climb back into the attic, nail and wire in the light, and position the second light.
5. Climb down and check the positioning.
6. Rest for forty-five minutes.
7. Climb back into the attic, nail and wire in the light, and position the third light.
8. Climb down and check the positioning.
9. Rest for an hour.
10. Climb back into the attic, nail and wire in the light, and position the fourth light.
11. Climb down and check the positioning.
12. Rest for another hour, then go get an espresso shake, and then rest for another hour.
13. Climb back into the attic, nail and wire in the light, and position the fifth light.
14. Climb down and check the positioning.
15. Rest for another hour.
16. Climb back into the attic, nail and wire in the light, and wire it all to power.
17. Climb back down and test the lights.
18. Bother the downstairs neighbor for access to the basement so the breaker can be reset.
19. Test the lights again.
20. Climb back into the attic to figure out where the wiring went wrong. Correct the problem.
21. Climb back down.
22. Bother the neighbor for a second time to again reset the breaker.
23. Test the lights again. Success!
24. Install all the lamps. Identify one with a missing bracket.
25. Drive to Home Depot to exchange the bad lamp.
26. Install the last lamp.
27. Finished! Well...
...except for the fact that a) I still have to deal with patching the old hole, and b) given my lack of fluency with lumens, it appears I may have overdone it a bit with the lighting. There are probably operating rooms with less light than my kitchen. So in the hopes that when the packaging on the lamps says "dimmable" it's not lying, I think I'll need to swap out my on/off switch for a dimmable one sometime in the near future.
In any case, what should've been about a three hour job turned into something like twelve. It reminded me of the nurse at Group Health telling me about the guy who was going through chemo while still working every day as a roofer. I can't even begin to imagine. Props to the cancer patients everywhere who don't have the luxury of short-term disability or an office job.
In case anyone's interested, here are pictures of my kitchen ceiling on Friday, Saturday and Sunday...
* Pointless in the sense that I didn't actually need to replace my kitchen light, but productive in the sense that I'm glad I did.
** Naturally, I wound up drilling the holes where BIL4 and I had originally laid them out.
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