Hello, Houzzers!
So I need advice on how to finalize the lightswitch setup in our new Kitchen/Dining Room. To get our electrical permit, our architect simply included the most basic lighting plan and assured as that during the building process “all details could be arranged with the electrician directly” so we trusted him and went with it—think he gave us 4 recessed lights in dining area and 4 in the kitchen and the space is enormous. So now we are finalizing and Our electrician is very “Old School” and is having a hard time giving us what we ask for—unsure if it is that he is actively ignoring our requests in the hope that we just give in to what’s done (am almost there so not exactly ineffective strategy on his part). In this giant space, we expect to basically have a 5-switch panel with dimmers at each of 3 entry/exits: 1 next to kitchen entryway just after foyer (may be hidden in pics by pantry closet), 1 next to sliding doors, and 1 at landing at the stairway leading to master suite. We’d like to just switch any and all lights on/off when entering space, heading out to deck, and heading upstairs to bed (he gave us just TWO switches at the stairs—which are fairly tucked away—1 for single dining pendant light and 1 for the stair well so on way to bed, gotta run around to 3 places to shut all the lights for the night). He’s now suggesting smart switches and “remote” switches installed in all 3 locations (he’s installed them in a total of 1 other home before us) to control all most conveniently. Theoretically that’s fine but our WIFI is wonky—especially with all the home-schooling now and working from home overtaxing it. I’m clearly new at this—is having 1 giant panel with multiple switches at each of 3 places nuts to expect when the space is so huge? Items to control are: kitchen overheads, 2 island pendants (to be purchased), dining room lights, dining room pendant (to be purchased). Single control switch makes sense for pantry closet upon entry to kitchen, deck lights, and stairway lights. What is intuitive placement for all these switches?? Thoughts?