Continuing to move along, with painting complete, suspended ceiling finished, and lights installed. Still need to make a couple touchups on paint in some spots where the tape pulled it off, and a couple dings I made moving things around. It’s hard to tell from the pictures, the main area is painted dark grayish-brown (though it took Joce a good week or two to acknowledge it even had brown in it, to me that was the first color I saw..), the laundry and bathrooms are a light gray.

Here you can see the bathroom ceiling, with the completed bathroom vent visible. The light in here is a vanity light on the wall, I don’t think it was mounted yet when I took this picture.

I used low-profile “circ-line” fluorescent fixtures in the laundry room. These fixtures take two bulbs each (a 32W and a 22W) but I just used the one 32W in both which provides plenty of light. They’re very nice, only extending a couple inches down.

For the main area, I have 3 independent sets of lights: 4 wall sconces (dimmable); 8 halogen pot lights (dimmable); and 1 halogen pot light mounted for a dart board, controlled by a switch on the wall next to it. Since one of the major uses of this room is a home theater, that was my main concern with lighting. I initially spent a lot of time researching dimmable CFL and LED technology, only to come to the conclusion that right now, even if I were to spend a ton of money (eg, even more than I would paying for electricity for these bulbs for a few years), it simply wouldn’t be as good as halogen/incandescent for dimming and warmth/color.

Mounting the pot lights was a bit of a challenge – I spent a couple hours trying to figure out the best number of pots and layout, which would provide adequate light when needed, but also physically fit the lights (eg, not have vents/joists in the way). Ultimately, I had to cut out notches in a couple joists to make it work. I used some reflective tape to try and reduce some heat, not sure how well it will work yet. I may ultimately end up cutting another inch or two out.