Ambient Lighting Everywhere

The color consultant talked about brightening up the house with white paint, and she made a casual comment--white on the ceiling, near-white on the walls, throw in a few wafer lights--you won't recognize the place it'll be so bright. (Paraphrasing.)

There is a reason every house has these wafer lights--they are awesome! Low energy, easy installation, easy to ignore. You put in more than you need and put them on a dimmer. 

I installed twelve 4" Parmida wafer lights in the Workshop in 2019.

The only challenge is getting power to one of them. In BR1 and BR2, we have a switched outlet, so we tap into that. In the Dining Room and Hall, I don't know if I want them on the same switch as the existing overheads, so maybe a new switch. The problem in the Living Room is that the switched outlet and the porch light are jammed into the same 1-gang box. To install a full-size dimmer like I have in BA1, I need more wall. But these are all surmountable.

Less than 24 fixtures ($150 or so), plus an electrician

I'm thinking that if I buy the fixtures and cut the holes, I can get an electrician to give them power. All I need is Romex sticking out of each hole--I can hook up the lights the way I did in the workshop. There are 5 sets on this plan, 5 switches to deal with. Maybe a man-day? Fingers-crossed $1500?

The dimmer switches (like BA1) are Lutron Maestro. They are $32 each at Home Depot--that's more than the wafer lights. But a $300 lights and switches, $1500 labor budget for all that light seems like a good deal.

• Living Room: Switch by front door. (8) 6" wafers = 8,000 lumens, 96W. Color-change for mood. Circuit #3.
• Dining Room: Switch by front door, not by kitchen? (4) 4" wafers = 2,800 lumens, 36W. Color-change for mood. Circuit #3. Living and Dining add 132W to the circuit.
• Hall: Switch by the laundry (TBD). Maybe skip the dimmer? (3) 6" wafers = 3,000 lumens, 36W. Not color-change. Circuit #15.
• BR1: Switch by the door. (4) 6" wafers = 4,000 lumens, 48W. Color-change for mood. Circuit #24.
• BR2: Switch by the door. (4) 6" wafers = 4,000 lumens, 48W. Not color-change. Circuit #24. BR1 + BR2 add 96W to the circuit.

Background

Lighting designers talk about ambient, task, and decorative lighting. Decorative can be anything and task is for sinks and kitchen counters. Let's discuss ambient lighting, now that I own a light measuring device.

Units: Bulbs and LEDs emit lumens (or candelas). My light meter, on the other hand, measures how much light hits a point in space. It displays lux (or foot-candles). The light produced by a 1 candela source on a single square foot poster board held one foot away from the candela is 1 foot-candle. 1 lumen hits a square meter held one meter away for 1 lux.

We seem to want 9 or ten foot-candles 3' off the ground to feel that a room is adequately lit. (This is based on my measurement, not confirmed yet.)

Range of foot-candles: 

BR1 7-8 Fc over the bed, 10-11 at the desk (near the lamp).

BA1 11-15 Fc thanks to 3 LED downlights. At max brightness, 20-23 Fc.

Hall 8-9, depending on how far from the clg light.

Kitchen 20-22, up to 26 directly under a downlight.

Living 6-9, depending on how close we are to a floor lamp. 10.6 near the lamp in the dining room.

Watts to Lumens, from [Lumens and FootCandles MEP Academy] (Candela assumes an apex angle of 56 degrees):

Incandescent	Lumens	Candela
40 Watts	450 Lumens	612 Candela
60 Watts	800 Lumens	1088 Candela
75 Watts	1,000 Lumens	1360 Candela
100 Watts	1,600 Lumens	2176 Candela

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This diagram illustrates that distance from the bulb matters. An 800 lumen bulb is about equal to a 60W incandescent bulb. FC = Lumens / (distance in feet squared). The Illuminating Engineering Society recommends 100 FC for classroom or gymnasium, 50 FC for offices, 10 FC for hallways.

4" Parmida wafer lights (like I put in the Workshop) are 700 lumens, dimmable, with a 120-degree beam angle. A 12-pack is $70.

6" Parmida wafer lights are 1000 lumens, dimmable, with a 120-degree beam angle. A 12-pack is $60.

Closets

I find the little closet in BR1 unusable (except for a lot of winter coats). Everything I put on the shelf in there is covered with dust. I like the idea of replacing the door with a swing-out bookcase. It's not a good closet, but at least it would be a conversation starter at an open house.

Whoever built the crummy trim in BR3 put the pole in this closet.

The pole hangs like the garage door track

Yup--the pole rests on a hinge.

I have 3 cedar-lined closets (2 in BR1, 1 in BR2). I would like nothing more than to paint the cedar bright white. However, sanding the cedar restores its aroma, which is what repels moths and other bugs. Cedar is a selling point and might be protecting my clothes, so I think I have to sand it.

The main BR1 closet may change its geometry depending on the BA1 remodel, but here's the as-built:

My person at the far right: Why the long face?

Most photos of "reach-in" closet organizers show the doors removed and the closet about as wide as the door opening. I wondered what to do with the extra 20" at the left in my closet, but I think the answer is: hang long stuff sideways on a 2' long pole, then install 9-12" shelf units on the back wall, to allow 12-15" of access to the hanging long stuff (e.g., pants or bathrobes). The shelf units can be shoes, or drawers or whatever. The rest of the closet is poles parallel to the back wall.

Luke Paints and Puts on a New Roof

Update: 11/1/2024. Mystery solved. They went with a deep blue, maybe as dark as an Indigo Batik, or perhaps Denim, Distance, Inky Blue, or Smoky Blue--I considered all of these. 

Just so I have a record, my neighbor Luke at 11803 8th Ave hired Hate to Paint to paint his house now that the interior remodeling (by Magazine Quality Kitchens) is done. I'm curious what color he'll go with. I saw Mona last week, but they got as far as primer before they apparently stopped while Luke replaced his metal shingle roof with Certainteed Landmark shingles.

The roofer did the tear off, underlayment and shingles in 3 days. The gutters, by Brothers Gutters, apparently damaged the metal shingles and Luke has been trying to reach an accommodation with them for months. So the gutters stayed; the metal shingles did not. I don't think I would have gone with black--I mean, I did, but I get no sun. I also would not have allowed all those penetrations on the front side of the house. It's hard to say, but I don't think he's got a ridge vent. On the plus side, his roofers were fast and that's a hefty valley flashing (like mine). 

I wonder what color paint he'll go with? Since he copied my roof, it would be funny if he went with light green over darker green and painted his bricks Peppercorn. He could do worse.

22 Feb 2022 photo for reference

Carpet Be Gone

Update: 10/26/24. What carpet?

Notice that the microfiber towel matches the edge tape? That is not an accident. (Yes it is.)

----

Well, that happened. The ratty old carpet by the laundry had me curious--did they decide to have carpet even though they already had 2" red oak flooring? Or did the oak stop? Maybe the oak continued, but it was damaged and carpet would cover it.

I peeled up one end and I told myself if the oak continued, I would remove all the carpet. But if not, I'd tack it back down for now. Turns out, I lied to myself.

Well, my house used to be a home, not a construction site.

As we know, all the dirt and any spills that's on the carpet flows through to the subfloor, but we were reminded. At the Kitchen, we learned that the ceramic tiles were glued to sheet vinyl flooring (looks like the same Armstrong pattern we chose for the 341 Johnson house--green diamonds on white). And for those counting at home, that is a full six thresholds on like 60 SF of floor.

Sheet vinyl under the kitchen tile

Next step, I'll put down subfloor to protect it (and to protect me from the ancient dust and grease). I'm thinking Ram board. Lowes has 150 SF (the hall is about 60) for $36, plus Ram board seam tape for $11. They also sell Ram board edge tape, but I don't think I need that.

The breezeway is a good 1/2" below the "finished" floor.

The drywall on the left is shot--they glued paneling to it and I painted over the glue remnants.

Wide-angle view of the whole thing.

Basement Stairs

I woke up thinking about this--it's a simple wood box with plywood doors, so why haven't I built it yet? I've wrung my hands over this little project on these pages before: Basement Door, Basement Stairs and the Lumber Yard, Clever Solution for BR2 Egress. After an hour or so thinking about it, I realized that that is not the solution I would propose to a client.

The geometry problem is due to the top tread being 2' wide, while the other treads are more like 8". This draws the front of the Bilco door triangle away from the house and makes a standard door seem too short. Standard basement doors assume standard runs of stairs.

So, here's the solution: pour new concrete steps at the top so that the tread and risers are more uniform. With the base of the Bilco door closer to the house, a standard size door will work. While we're dealing with concrete, build up the curbs on either side (where the failed wood railings are).

Status as of October 2024

Egress window from BR2--land on Bilco door, not the stair pit.

The new insight is--1) change the steps--that wide tread at the top is the problem. Need to raise a curb on both sides--that's a concrete situation. Drill and epoxy some rebar and form the side walls. Paint to match the exposed concrete foundation as shown above. Finish the top with a Bilco door. Where the wide tread was, fill in the gap. Make the new concrete slope from the Bilco door away from the house.

Update 10/23/24: Here's how it pencils out. Because there's a landing outside the basement door, there has to be a similar-width thing for a roof. That is, Bilco doors open on stairs, not stairs and a bottom landing. But that similar-width roof provides a landing pad for someone escaping out the BR2 window. I'm thinking mineral roll roofing (as we used for the chicken coop on Foster) with a Trex deck resting on it on sleepers.

Carport is an addition, not an accessory building?

What if we built an 18'-6" x 20'-0" addition in front of the existing workshop? Give it walls and a roll-up garage door. I'm picturing a 20' LVL for a ridge beam with 2x6 @ 24" on either side at 1.5:12. On the 2x6s? SunTuf polycarbonate. Solid walls, glass roof. Ta freaking da.

Alternative #1: sheathing and EPDM roofing. Alternative #2: Kick the roof pitch up to 4:12, use conventional trusses and die into the existing garage roof like a dormer. Alternative #3: Just bite the bullet and extend the garage roof (hip or gable at front?).

This approach has these advantages:

• Solves car protection from leaves/driver protection from rain
• Preserves full-size workshop (a selling point, and not just for me)
• Does not look like a second front door; no confusion
• A Mud Room would be very nice

And disadvantages:

• Low-slope roof looks bad--might be better with a parapet all around (that is, better weird than bad)
• Puts the garage door in your face, just like every other crappy tract house
• 18' depth fits the RAV4, but it's not code for a garage. For the city, I'd call it all Workshop.

Alternative #1 EPDM roof:

• EPDM would look like a manufactured home. At least SunTuf would be serendipitous

Alternative #2 4:12 roof:

• More expensive framing; might want to add posts and a beam down the middle
• Need to remove some of the new roofing to tie in--need to reconsider gutter situation
• More expensive roofing--have to match Certainteed roof

Alternative #3 Full roof:

• Gives us attic storage options
• City might require calcs for new roof (dumb, because it's just engineered trusses over the addition and filling in with 2x4s over the existing loft--it's not going to add load to the existing structure)
• Only solution that doesn't scream addition/garage conversion
• 5 squares of new shingles - $500 roughly

7' high garage door (renderings below show 8' door)

Alternative #3

Awning windows and Hardiplank siding

Garage available for larger workshop projects

View approaching from 9th Ave

LVP Floor calculation

Since I did some quick calculations, I thought I'd save them here. Cali LVP from Lowe's is $4.56/SF right now. $96.98 per carton. Each carton yields 21.28 SF--they make it easy, right?

The entire house, including the "western addition," is 1,480 SF. Adding 10% for waste, that would be 1628 SF. 

76 cartons of Cali: Green Leaf Vinyl Flooring Toasted Almond Brown 20-mil x 7-in W x 48-in L Waterproof Interlocking Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring (21.28-sq ft/ Carton) would cost $7,370.48 plus $756 tax = $8,126.48.

Just for the record as of October 2024.