That is awesome! More impressive than pot people that's for sure!

@sparkler: Thanks, you make a good point! So far the ceiling fixtures, pendants over sink and the sconces are all from the same line of lights so hopefully that translates into the same shade of white. One poster suggested changing the sconces to a different line for variety. If we do that we will avoid doing a sconce with a white shade to avoid the different white problem. We were planning to order them from LightingDirect.com, but if we don't like them together we can return them I assume. @ romy718 Thanks, that is a very good idea to work though. I do like those lights I posted for in front of the window and it does come in a bigger size. That sphere shape one is 3 times the price as the drum shaped one I posted in my opening post. The sphere shaped one is 14.5 inches and the drum shaped one is 19 inches in diameter. The sphere shaped one has one 150 watt bulb and the drum shaped one holds 3- 60 (180 total) watt bulbs. All, What is the best way to float in the pictures of these light fixtures into a picture of my kitchen? DH has done a Sketch-up picture of the kitchen. If we could figure out how to cut and paste pictures of the lights into this Sketch-up photo we would have a better idea of what the visual clutter would look like and if the 3D shapes looked good together. I would like to keep the two ceiling lights and sconces as they are the only source of ambient or up lighting. The rest of the lights (pots and pendants) are all down lights. As per the dining room chandy, I am thinking we will start off using our old dining room chandy and change it out later when we have extra funds. Below you will see a picture of our dining room before the house rebuild. New DR will be much more spacious. You can see the old DR chandy I was hoping to reuse for now. Is it a disaster to re-use with the other light fixtures I have chosen for the kitchen that is nearby? Carol This post was edited by OntarioMom on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 19:03

It's just not possible to have too much light, in my opinion. I've never been in a house that was too bright. When we were planning our kitchen gut, I added cans, pendants and undercabs. All the cans got switched up from dimmer to switch for one reason: I wanted to be able to use CFL bulbs to save on electric. These require a different fixture. The cans that can use CFL bulbs on a dimmer cost ten times what the switch ones cost. Hence, I got no dimmers. The old kitchen had two ceiling mount fixtures with four flourescent tubes each. The new kitchen has twelve cans in the ceiling, six pendants over the dining table and six pendants over the peninsula. I have CFL bulbs in every one; all different colors of light; none burn hot. We have four cans to one switch and 3 pendants to one switch. If it is too bright (which is never) I can always turn a switch off, (but never do). Having that much light in the workspace is just AWESOME! Yes, our neighbors think we're growing pot in the house. Yes, our electrician made fun of me the entire time he was working on it. No, I wouldn't change it! My cataracts no longer inhibit the activities I can work on in there and I think the food even tastes better! I'm planning on cutting more holes in the ceiling in the living room, and the little bedrooms if we ever get that far on the renovation! We're saving a bundle of money on the electric bill and don't have extension cords with lamps attached and cords to trip on anywhere anymore!!! In addition, we got the can fixtures that keep the bugs up in the attic from coming thru the ceiling. Nice huh? No more cricket carcasses like in the old tube fixtures! I won't ever have to worry about cricket legs or spiders coming down from the ceiling onto the dining table ever again. It's just wonderful! The undercab ones we got are halogen. They do burn hot and suck electric. Those I would change in a heartbeat. I worry about warping the cabinetry & my spices going stale so I don't use them much, except as a night-light when one of us is getting home late. The color of the light coming from them is yellow-er than the other ones and I don't like it as much. Another thing I hate about the undercab lights is the transformers take up space inside my cabinetry. What I love about our undercab lighting is that our electrician was able to hide all the wire so you cannot see it & it illuminates the back corner areas that are so dark. Seeing all the way to the corners is awesome & lets me use space I would ignore otherwise.

I love the concept of re-purposing an item that is no longer useful in its original incarnation. Whether or not the birds will choose to inhabit your houses depends on many factors, the species of birds in your area, their criteria for nesting habitat, and other things. I hope some birds will find your cute houses to their liking. Your guys did a nice job! I used my excess plastic flower pots (and bought some more to finish the job) as lampshades for my patio lights around our outdoor picnic area. They seem to hold up better than the plastic shades that come with strings of patio lights. I used white pots and colored light bulbs.