I read somewhere (recently), can't recall the ssource, that you need to open your windows for only 5 minutes a day to air out a house. Hmm, if I start now, by the time I open all the windows, it will be time to start closing them. It's a sunny day, 70, not very humid. And I don't like artificial sprays,etc. I had bought Charlies soap, it's wonderful for laundryu, has a very faint coconutty odor. Reminds me of sun tan oil/sunscreen, the beach. What could be fresher?

You can buy surface mount or flush mount fluorescent fixtures. With surface mount you can pretty mcuh go any size you want. With flush the fixture will have to go parallel to your joists and fit between a pair of them. These fixtures all feature some type of swing panel access to replace bulbs. Surface mount ones are already available in various trim work or you can buy a plain one and trim it yourself. Fluoresent tube lighting is more commercial in style, even though you can decorate around them to make them fit well with many kitchens. Recessed "can" lights are more contemporary and look more "custom" as typically they'd be part of some reno or a custom option at build time. They can also be positioned as task-oriented lighting allowing some felxibility in how you light the whole room (multiple switches, dimmers, etc..) Neither fixture/light type is a perfect fit for everyone. You can achieve quite a bit of variation with each as well, so don't get fixated on one particular installation you've seen. Bruno

If this were anything other than a straight run circuit, starting at the outlet and ending at the electrical panel, I would have gotten an electrician in to inspect my work. This is the absolute simpliest circuit that can be run, a dedicated line with no branches. My Dad was a civil engineer and my Grandfather a mechanical engineer. They rewired both the house Mom lives in now (Dad grew up there) and the house that I grew up in, and we did a lot of other wiring projects over the years. Plus a friend of mine is an electrician for Norfolk Southern. His advice to me was "Black to brass, white to silver, ground to green for the outlet, black to breaker, white to neutral, ground to ground in the electrical panel." Or, as he said, even you can do this one. Dad and I had already laid out the fundamentals of pulling a sub panel into Mom's office before he died last year, so I had absolute no qualms about what I was doing. I decided to do away with a sub panel and go with a simple dedicated line for this one. Given that the AC that I put in the room only calls for a 15 amp circuit and draws 5 amps, I've got tons of spare capacity on the circuit that I ran, enough that I may tie into the circuit to put a ceiling light in.

Thank you very much, cleo and brickmanhouse! lisadlu, someone in my local store suggested that and I think it's a decent option, however I'd still prefer a centered hole if I can get away with it. But thank you - if this pancake box suggestion doesn't PAN out (heh heh), I may go that route.