Seeing The Light(s)

One of the other big projects, that I didn't think was going to be that big my bad, was adding additional lights in my workshop/garage.  There was a single light bulb towards the house door and lights on the garage door opener that were motion censored.  But other than that, there were no other lights.   Most of the time when I’m in the garage I’m either painting or staining and opening the garage door is a big no no when doing that because you don’t want stuff blowing into it and sticking to your freshly painted/stained furniture.  Oh and there’s nothing like mid-paint stroke the lights going off because it didn't sense you in there so you have to do a dance and jump around to get the lights to turn back on.  Yes- this happens.  A LOT.  Don’t mind the crazy girl getting high off paint fumes. 

I was chatting on the phone a few months ago with my Daddy-O, when I brought up this problem.  I had seen in the Menards flyer those long florescent bulb lights- yes, that’s the technical term- and wondered if I could get some of those installed in there.  So I asked.  And he said yes.  So that went onto the To Do List.  Booyah!

Also on that phone conversation I said how when he was here I wanted to build a work bench.  At that point all I had was a 2 X 2 piece of plywood that I balanced on plastic horses.  Any time I needed to use the miter saw, I put it on top of the plywood, hoping that I didn't knock it over mid- cut and slice my arm off.  Not kidding.  SO.NOT.SAFE. 

He starts asking me questions about the size of it, how long, how deep, how tall?  So I was like, whatever- about 4 feet to fit into the bump out and a couple of feet and probably counter top height.  He then wanted me to be a little more specific than that and I was all-  Come on, I’m on the couch with a bowl of ice cream watching Biggest Loser- leave me alone.  We can figure it out when you get here.  Just kidding, I got up off that comfy couch and measured for the damn thing.  Not quite sure why he NEEDED to know right then but I did it.  So he says- OK I’ll just build it here and put it together when we get out there.  WHAT????  SWEET!  And I was all like, So I just tell you what I want, snap my fingers and you’ll build it?  And he was all like, Simmer down.   

OK back to the garage lights.  So on one of the thousand sooooooooo not exaggerating trips to Menards, we picked up two 4 ft lights and one 2 ft light, the light bulbs, some pretty colored spools of wire, metal tracks, electrical outlets, boxes and plates, more wire and circuit breakers.  Don’t ask.  He said it would be easy. 

First thing was to cut the power, take off the single existing light bulb and measure where the new 4 ft lights were to go.   Then we put up the track and pushed the 3 wires through the track.

Then we installed the lights and connected them all together to the box from the single light bulb so when I turn on that light switch all of the lights come on together.  Sounds super easy right?  Yeah.  Only took us a few hours. 

See how bright is it in there now?  Ridiculous.  Then came time for the 2 ft light- which was going to be installed over my new work bench in the bump out.  This light we didn't want connected to the other lights.  But since there was no power on that side of the garage, we needed to put in a new power source.  And by "we" I totally mean "he" Hence the new circuit breaker and outlets.  So we cut into the drywall, fed the wire up through into the breaker box, connected it to the light, hung the light and BAM!  We have a new light! 

I also have 4 new outlets- cuz I only had the one in the entire garage before- near the house door.  So inconvenient.  Now I’m totally hooked up! 

It’s so bright in there that I can work all night long if I wanted to.  My neighbors might not appreciate it but WHATEVS!  I'VE GOT LIGHTS IN MY GARAGE BITCHES!