Notes: Any words or phrases you don't understand then make them your KEYWORDS and then look them up. LET US SEE WHAT KIND OF LIGHT YOU WANT: If you have photos of what kind of light you want you can go to Google Images and find images of what you are looking for. The simply reply to us and mention the URL , address, of the photo's address. By right clicking on the photo you can usually copy and then paste it. I personally type all my correspondence into a separate letter that I save so that I don't happen to lose something in case the page I'm on happens to fail for some reason. Saving the backup page occasionally is smart. I have one called MAIL.DOC, another POSTS.DOC, another, FRIENDS.DOC. Each then has text pertinent for each use and it's unlikely that I will lose it or misplace it or accidently close the page without it asking me if I was sure. Be sure to save it. Plus you end up with a living history of what you have written. This can be helpful later when looking for things you want to share with others. I enter the date along with what I type. This puts my thoughts into a time frame. Thus if it was about 'last year' and I read what I was writing 'last year' I begin to remember what all went along with thoughts during that time. Good luck. SHARE YOUR PHOTOS If you have photos you can easily put them online for us all to see by simply going to http://www.bild.me/ Once you upload it there.. BE SURE. to ave and remember the name they give you as they'll rename it. Try it first with photos as practice. IT works simply and simple is better. You won't get another chance to find your photo. It's odd .. don't know why it's like that. but it's free and it works well. Choose the selection at the bottom of the page. Why? It's the simplest. Otherwise they use marketing information to help your friends come back to the site and bring their friends and so on. At the bottom of the page there will be several choices for you to pick as to which is your photo. The best choice is the last one. In my case I took an image of me typing this page and posted it for you to see. Look here for it: http://s1.bild.me/bilder/012010/2236990clp11455.gif All I did was clip a photo using PAINT of my screen , using PRINT SCREEN, then Ctl-V to paste it to Paint, Once I had my image I uploaded it for you to see how and that it works. I'm sorry this is so long. Pass it on to friends or save it to repost another time when it fits the question better. Thanks An easy rule for helping you think through things about light and the amount of energy you get on a surface is this: Each time you move a light 1/2 the distance away or 1/2 the distance closer to your surface you'll get 4times or 1/4 the amount of light on that surface. Another way to say the same thing is this: Assume that 100 watts in a ceiling fluorescent fixture is enough light. It's about 5 feet from the work surface. Now move that light away by 5 feet and it's only got the same power as a 25 watt bulb. Go from 5 feet to 2.5 feet and it's like having 400 watts of light on the surface. This could be a reason for looking for an adjustable fixture that moves, slides, or rotates out of the way. Looking at things many different ways helps you to resolve problems that seem hard in the beginning. Don't try too hard to understand. Give your brain a day or two to absorb what you picked up. I can answer Q. here about anything related to light science but not so much about products available. Sorry I'm not all that familiar with what's on the market. PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT YOU COME UP WITH. You'll put a lot of work into finding what you want. Share that work with us and save a lot of time for others. I personally will save what work you do and will share it with others who have a need. You NEED a certain amount of light for various tasks. I look up this search to help you light levels for task lighting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_lighting Spend at least an hour understanding about how light levels affect performance and happiness and attitude. It's not Fung Shway. It's a method developed about 1900 during factory development in the USA. I don't know about dimmable fluorescent's and CRI index. If the quality changes, as it does when you dim incandescent then you will want to know how the CRI quality affects you. IF you CAN dim your light without affecting the quality then you're gaining something. Make sure you can dim from 'mood' lighting.. about 2 candles are mood lighting up and past the normal level you would use. Don't pay extra for presettable features. A simple fluorescent dimmer is good enough. Check Amazon for deals on lighting. I often see things there for 1/10ths the price I Can buy elsewhere. You have to check daily especially if you find something you want and like. It can drop for 2 days then go back up to regular price. It pays for be insistent. Light should be pretty. If I use 100 watts of light but I focus it then it will appear bright on the surface it's pointed at. IT will be bright. But will it be workable? No. You'll have glare ( this is where bright spots appear close by dark spots) The quality of light is important. CRI is the quality of light compared to Sunlight. The Sun = 100 and assumes that it's a good quality of light. Yellow bug lights are about 20 and are poor for anything that people do. Mercury lamps , for outdoor lighting, are about 80 and are just at the edge of a quality that is useful. I would avoid them. Halogen, Tungsten, .. the kind with a tiny capsule and run off of 12 volts, or 120 volts , or even the kind used in most cars as headlights (not the bluish colors) are halogen lamps. They are made and work just like regular incandescent bulbs but burn hotter are more efficient and give better quality light.. 100 on the CRI scale. The best choice between value and quality is , for a room, fluorescent lamps tubes . Not screw in lamps, nor LEDS, nor anything sold as a special better quality fluorescent lamp. Those companies cater to your emotional pocketbook. A good lamp bulb by GE, or FEIT, or any major brand is a fine choice for a room light. As your needs are not so great that you can get away with a smaller lamp size you will have to begin the arduous task of matching the quality of light to the styles of lamps available. Wikipedia is a start to get an education. In my opinion you should avoid LED lights for now. In a few years they will be of higher quality and lower price so they make sense to buy. But not now in 2010. You'll be surprised at what's the cheapest cost to run also. Fluorescent 40watt bulbs are the cheapest for home. best full range room lighting If you are working with color, that includes food, then bring samples of food to view under the lamps that you have a choice to use. You should want to use a CRI of 100 always but variances and your eye can cause you to prefer one lamp over another and maybe find one cheaper than another. Here's a few sites to look into. Let me say .. the importance of choosing the right light source for its color must be made with good advice. Bad color lighting will cause you to feel ill, cause your food to appear unappealing, and even cause guests to find your home a sad place to visit. Finding the right 'can' to fit your ceiling should come secondarily to finding the right quality of light. That's my opinion and I believe you're feeding your ignorance if you listen to other counsel.

Thank you for your reply. You referred to these as high end. Can you explain why? I know they are low voltage. But I cannot stand the look of such a huge thing hanging down from the ceiling. I only have 8' ceilings. I did see the other canopy, & it is actually larger in diameter than this one. Maybe I am getting a bad feeling too because she forgot to order them, so the cost of each light is significantly more & it is hard to shop with a budget with such a mistake. No apology. Then she ordered the wrong finish--she got platinum, which is not even available on the website. I found it in an old catalog though. Then she claimed my electrician told her my socket set was platinum. I was there when he talked to her on the phone & he did not say that. If she had a doubt I feel she should have asked to talk to me or looked up the original order. She actually said the 2 colors on the same light would be OK because they weren't touching--they had a cord between them. That color is not on the website either, but in the same old catalog. I have the feeling she is blaming everyone else so she can stick me with these expensive lights. Can you explain the different finishes? Do these lights have to have that huge transformer because they are low voltage? If so, can you tell me if there are any other kinds of mini pendant lights that don't require a transformer box, or a company that has a smaller one? I do not care if they are low voltage even. I have aleady bought several items for my kitchen to "go" with the color of the pendant lights, as with black granite counters I had no actual color. The color scheme was built around these lights I not longer want. Thanks for any more help.

Update - ok, the 3 pendant lights are growing on me! My first thought when I say them was "nooo, that's not what I envisioned!!" - just as deedles said I thought it looked too crowded. I thought it would drive me crazy and I'd want it changed NOW, but I'm glad I'm giving it some time. Not to say that I won't want it changed, but it def doesn't seem like the "emergency" get it changed NOW that it was last week. deedles - no, can't slide the island down - it's already in place as is the floor so that would be a HUGE deal. But thanks for the idea. kellied - I agree, I need to set a time. And summer sounds like a good time to reevaluate! I am so ready to be done w/ this remodel that I don't even want to think about changing it anytime soon! EMH107 - thanks! And I do think the 38" height is perfect - I thought it would be too high, but it looks great and isn't in anyone's line of sight when in the kitchen. And the pendants def gives off enough light and do not glare in anyone's eyes. I'm thinking too that it would be a BIG pain to change the pendant holes. Funny how last week it seemed like such an issue and I wanted it changed right then, and now it's not so much an emergency! mpagmom - thank you for the compliments! So very true - 2 might not look like enough! I couldn't imagine going through the work of getting them changed to 2 and then not liking that! The more I keep responding to msgs, the more and more I am leaning on keeping them as is. And I guess it goes to show that there isn't a "normal" height for pendants!! linelle - that seems a little low, esp if you have taller people in the kitchen since the pendants would be right in their line of sight. I do like the height that our pendants are - but I guess it all depends on what type of pendants you have. Our pendants do have good light output and the way they are designed you wouldn't have bulb glare in your eyes unless you mounted them really, really high. I do like that we don't have to "dodge" around the pendants to see and talk to others that are in the kitchen and family room. Thanks for the compliment, linelle. The faucet is Moen Arbor w/ the new reflex technology - LOVE it!!

The kitchen space hasn't been created yet because we don't have the building permit yet because we need a zoning variance but can't get that till we go to the zoning board meeting in a few weeks and all of this has put us about 7 weeks behind and a few thousand more in cost. Gaaa. So while it would be nice to actually try out some things in the actual space, we're doing the next best thing ... our bathroom has a double window w/walls on either side and the space is very close in size to the sink area that will be in the kitchen. The paper shades weren't quite doing it so I hunted around in the basement and found a 10" (across the bottom) shade and a 13" (across the bottom shade) that we alternately tacked up on a ribbon into the ceiling in our bathroom. We've gotten input from several people, including the folks at Schoolhouse Electric, to go with the 10". While I don't think we'd have a problem with it I do think we'll always be like "ahhh, should have gone just a tad bigger". Since it is the only fixture in the kitchen (the rest is recessed and under-cabinet lighting) we're leaning towards the 12", making it more of a statement piece. Thanks for the replies, greatly appreciate the input!