On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:02:45 -0800 (PST), stevelup
wrote:

On Feb 25, 1:50*pm, T i m wrote:

I agree it looks modern and designer (I guess the .mac bit in the
following link gave it away g) but (respectfully) with the dark
floors and work surfaces and units it doesn't look 'bright' as I
understand it? Maybe you don't have all the lights on and that's in
'mood' mode?

I think the main lights were on at about 10% in that shot - it's like
an operating theatre with them at 100%. When cooking we have them set
to about 60%

Ah, ok.


I'm a big fan of hidden lighting and have used it elsewhere in the
house too.

We only have a couple of hidden lights, it's a 20W CFL sitting on a
high shelf on a bit of reflective foil. Lights this smallish lounge up
sufficiently for TV viewing etc.

Are you saying you have stuff stacked on top of your
units?

Yup. Small cooler bags, seldom used food storage boxes etc.

If you don't, then you could put some fluorescent lights on the
top of the cupboards hidden behind a baffle. As long as your ceiling
is bright white, you will then get a large amount of pleasant looking
diffuse light which you could then supplement with task lighting.

We are quite happy with the std flouros Steve. We retain the storage
space and also get easy to maintain efficient lighting. I'm also not
sure 'hidden lighting' is in keeping with a house over 100 years old?

Plus if I had a kitchen like yours I would feel bad about
fiberglassing *my motorcycle panels or our Daughter turning a school
design project in there! ;-)

Its not too bad to be honest - takes a good deal less looking after
than our old kitchen. I don't think I'd go as far as repairing a
motorbike in there though!

Ah, well I am old and remember when it was perfectly normal to drag
your whole motorbike in the kitchen to work on it, not just the panels
(and have done so round my Uncles with his Scooter).

CFL's maybe not, and I guess in *that* style of kitchen even FL's
might look out of place unless 'concealed' but then there goes a lot
of light again .. :-(

The problem I have with CFL's is that I don't like the colour
temperature and I don't like the fact that they cannot be properly
dimmed.

shrug Light goes on, light goes off ... ;-)

The only dimmable lamp in here is a small bedside light with a 25W
incandescent.

As soon as something comes out which is the right (in my mind)
colour temperature and can dim down to 5% without flickering, then
I'll be more than happy to adopt it.

Light goes on, light goes off .. ;-)

Excuse the clothes and tools... Must take some better pictures at some
point.

I can't see any tools or clothes, could you take some pictures with
the lights on please? I did expect to see a MacBook Air on the side
though? weg

I was mainly referring to the clothes airer in front of one of the
windows.

Meh, I'm an engineer, would even 'see' them .. now if you had piston
on the worktop ... ;-)

The pictures were taken before the MacBook Air was launched -
must take some fresh ones. I would certainly love an Air but at 1200
quid, it will need to wait until the house is finished *and* the
credit cards have been paid off

1200 quid for a Mac with a single USB, no optical drive or Firewire
Steve?

It looks like nice work and equipment, do it all yourself Steve?

Every last bit... Nearly killed me but I learnt lots whilst doing it!

I bet. I've been there with most of the stuff. This place had gas
lighting in when I bought it and a chimney in the kitchen etc.

Here are a handful of work in progress pictures:-

http://gallery.mac.com/loopylup#100026

Nice. It's amazing how something so clean can come from such a mess
eh. It's also amazing that the whole space could be illuminated by a
4' flouro while you were doing it! ;-)

After I finished the kitchen, I attacked the living room. This was
completed the day before Christmas. It has some nice hidden
lighting...

http://gallery.mac.com/loopylup#100011

Very integrated.

We have a 19" TFT and a Pro Logic surround sound system (MS fronts /
centre, Celestion Little Ones rear, Yamaha active sub all via a
Sherwood R 125RDS) and in spite of my Arcam'd mate getting annoyed
because this 'cheapo' setup sounding better than his it hasn't been
used for years .. (we aren't film watchers).

Shower room is next, then I am hanging my DIY hat up for the
forseeable future!

You say ... ;-)

It's quite draining when you can only do it on
evenings and weekends although I have saved an absolute fortune by
doing it all myself.

Yup. When I was buying this place on my own some 30 years ago whilst
working for BT it was all I could do to buy the place and afford the
materials. Hours and hours of evenings and weekends disappeared in new
floors and removing chimney breasts, rewiring (well wiring as there
wasn't much in here), running gas, water etc etc left me pretty
d-i-y'd out.

Now it's just a matter of keeping things working and enjoying
ourselves outside the house!

All the best ..

T i m