No you aren't way off base. :) Basically you hit the nail on the head. Suspended no more than 2" above the plants, the effective foot print of any fixture is slightly less than the dimensions of the fixture itself. So a 4'x2' has approx. a 3.75x1.75 effective footprint. But "adequately" is the key word. Defining it when growing seedlings that are acceptable for garden transplants is very different from defining it when using artificial light to provide optimal growth, bloom, and fruit indoors. So I'll assume you are talking about growing seedling transplants for the garden. If not then the Growing Under Light forum is the place to go. And there are other variables. T8 bulb fixture are only marginally better than the old T12 fixtures so for all practical purposes the effective footprint is the same. T5 fixtures are measurably better than T8 and allow them to hang a couple of inches higher and still be as effective. How much does that added height of the T5 increase your effective foot print? Not much. It basically eliminates the dead space loss at the ends of the tubes and brings you up to full fixture dimensions. The fixture ends will still be weaker - more equivalent to T8 - but adequate. There are other factors of course - types of bulbs, other ambient light, age of the bulbs, etc. but for all practical purposes when using fluorescent tube light fixtures, the "adequacy" footprint is the size of the fixture itself. To improve on that you have to move into the high power fixtures, the big CFLs, HPS, and metal halide. They will have much bigger footprints than the fixture size. A simple rule of thumb when growing seedling transplants is "more is better and closer is better". You can easily have too little light but you can seldom have too much light. Dave

we have a basement stairway that is drywalled on both sides. It actually gives a feel of going down into a cave. so, you may want to keep the openness. But, I'm sure you can do better than a 2x4 for the attachment. maybe a pole that's 6 x 6 around in a box? for safety, you may find lighting to be more helpful. These days, I worry more about the old folks than the kids :o)

I highly recommend LED bulbs; we have about 100 3.6W MR16-style LED bulbs in our house in 3" mini-can housings, all at about 4500K (neither warm nor cool white). Each gives about as much light as a 35-40W halogen bulb. Our 19 x 21' kitchen has 15 for general lighting, plus the following task lighting: 4 over our 13' counter with main sink; 8 over our 5 x 9' main island; and 4 over our 3'3" x 9' small island. The 72" wide range hood came with ten 40W PAR20 bulbs but light a 9' wide area including range and landings; we'll be replacing the 40W bulbs with 5W dimmable LED bulbs. This is a good amount of light, not too much, not too little. Well, in the range hood area 50W of LED bulbs (equivalent to about 500W of halogen lights) is actually too much light but it's dimmable, not that my wife will use any setting but MAX. (There are also 10W LED bulbs available, but my wife has no self control when it comes to light and WILL burn out her retinas if I let her.) The standard medium base "Edison" bulb is not a form factor well suited to LEDs because while filaments (tungsten, halogen) are point sources and radiate in all directions, LEDs are VERY directional and have limited dispersion (15-60 degrees). Most LED medium base bulbs have more LEDs pointing outward with very few pointing up, some nearly exclusively point upward (downward in a pendant application). The distribution and "point" of the individual LEDs will affect whether the ambience (outward glow) or the task function (downward lumens) will work. Most pendant shades do have an inner white lining to even out the light distribution, and that will improve your downward light output for task lighting. LED color is tricky as well, as many are very cool white and won't give you that warm glow you expect from the pendant shade. A warm white (3000-3500K) bulb will give you the best ambience, whereas a pure white (4000-4500K) will give you the best task lighting. Another caution: pendants spaced too far apart look odd, but too close looks worse. I would recommend a spacing of about every 2-3'. Also, there should be ideally 3, or 4 max. Slimmer/smaller ones can be spaced a little closer and you can have more of them and still look fine. There are metallic shades (if modern works for your kitchen) that will give you a lot more task lighting. Here is a link that might be useful: [Houzz Pendant Light Ideabook[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/kitchen-islands-pendant-lights-done-right-stsetivw-vs~158689)

Just got done with the meeting with Project Manager and Framer.. As suspected the Project Manager did not understand what walls I was speaking about as he was only mentioning the kitchen wall.. I then began to mention all of the other areas noting that some were extremely minor while others, like the kitchen, stairs, and master bedroom walls, were a bit more important.. At this point both of their faces dropped and the plans came out.. They both began checking and measuring and in the end the Framer owned up that he misread the plans which offset everything else.. So they began scrambling around checking the walls and double checking.. According to them everything is fixable with the exception of two walls.. So here is a list of the modifications that will be made: The master bedroom wall that butts up against the stairs and master bathroom can only be shifted where the bathroom is.. The part by the stairs will have to be furred out to make it even with the part from the bathroom wall.. Closet wall that adjoins the master bathroom will be pulled out accordingly. Stair case will be re-framed to the correct specs. This will require moving beams in the basement. This also requires a wall on the first floor to be moved that holds up the floorjoists for second floor over the garage. To move this wall they will be sistering the floor joists of the second floor to extend them to the new wall. All bedrooms on second floor will be pulled out into the hallway as per plan. Master bedroom wall that adjoins the hallway will be moved in 5 inches to align with new staircase. Kitchen wall will be re-framed according to plan. Side entry door will be re-framed to adjust opening. Master bedroom window will be re-framed to adjust for wall movement. Master bedroom door opening will be re-framed to adjust for wall movement. Second floor hallway window will be re-framed to adjust for all movement. Parallam that runs between first and second floor above dining room will be moved to be even with wall that's to be moved with staircase. I think that pretty much covers all the changes.. Honestly, I don't know how this is all getting fixed.. Main beams are being moved that have framed walls sitting on top of them.. I just don't see how this can be structurally sound after its done and how it won't effect everything above.. I mean floor boards are nailed under the framing of second floor perimeter walls and they are moving beams below that are nailed and glued to them.. I have the mentality that once you open something up it is never the same as when you started.. Things loosen up, shift, etc.. I guess we will see what happens.. At least they took responsibility for their mistakes and owned up to it.. Let's just see how the adjustments turn out.. I just pray that they are not making changes that shouldn't be touched, although I can't see them alter something that would effect the structural integrity of the house or result in a poor quality result.... These are not the complete plans, but just to give you an idea of the work that is being changed..