Thanks Tommyw. I'm looking at the 12V strip light. They have the option of 2,3 or 4 lamps per foot. I am currently leaning towards 4 lamps per foot as I can always dim them. Also, should a light strip like this be mounted towards the front, mid or back. Below is a link to the lights I'm looking at. Here is a link that might be useful: Light Strip

Did not touch bulbs with bare hands but used a piece of white paper towel--did that ruin the bulb? The area where the fixture is located is very difficult to reach & I did hold the wrapped bulb for more than 2 minutes on each bulb. There are no identifying numbers on the old bulbs or the new ones just the 12 volt 18 watt. But on the packing slip it states the what the bulbs are & uses the 9774 #. I googled the number and saw that there is a 9775 as well but no discription on color of light.

While I would now go with LED's instead of Xenon puck lamps, at the time, 2006, they were very rare, if available at all,so we went with Xenons, alto we do have some Halogens, "here and there". While both Halogens and Xenons do get hot, the Xenons do not get near as hot and it will NOT! hurt a Xenon lamp if you handle it with "bare fingers" (course only a cold lamp), but were you to do the same with a Halogen lamp, it would INDEED shorten the life of said lamp. There is no warning on Xenon lamps about handling , like there is on most Halogen lamps. Also the average life expectancy of a halogen lamp is 2000 hours whilst the life expectancy of a Xenon Lamp is 10,000 hours (5 times the life)! I back lit the Onyx surround for our gas fireplace with Xenon lights as it's a pain to change one , should one ever blow, so far in 6 years none have, but neither has any of our Halogens---but----all these lights are on dimmers and very rarely are they turned all the way up. Today, 2012, I would go ALL LED's, and in fact I just replaced the 8 can lights, 35 watt halogens in the kitchen with 8 watt LED's and they are actually brighter than the halogens were, and doing a "little math" (8 x 35 = 280 watts) (8 x 8 = 64 watts) So we are saving over 200 watts here, assuming that all were run at "full brightness" which they rarely were, but our "Before Electric Bill" was typically in the $60's range, the last bill (after switching to LED's) was $51. Good luck with your project! Gary

Okay...I called one of the suppliers of a MR11 "xenon" bulb and they told me the bulb still acts like a Halogen and that the color temperature will still be bright "white." I'm confused because I thought Xenons were supposed to be basically like incandescent. They referred me to use a brand new bulb that is an "LED MR11 bi-pin" bulb, which is offered in "warm white" color. It is designed to take the place of a halogen lamp, and has a cluster of LEDs in the middle. Of course this is $29per bulb, so I'm not sure what to do, but may order one and see how it works. I don't mind the price if the color temperature looks good, as I know LEDs will last for years without replacement. Any further thoughts?