February 2nd - Day 33/332 days to go!

Since today was a busy day in my personal life, my mini life had to take a back seat.....but....I did find some time to contemplate the dollhouse's future electrical needs.

I spent a while staring into the dollhouse and determining where I am going to put the ceiling lights....and how I am going to hide their wires. Since I will have the cardstock templates of each rooms floor space, I can use that to work out just where the ceiling fixtures need to be. One might think that simply putting them in the middle of the ceiling would be the obvious choice, and in some rooms that might work, but in others it won't.

For example, the dining room. It is an odd shaped room to begin with and since I have decided to put a buffet in the room, the position of the table now shifts to the left of where it would have been if it were the only furnishing in the room. If I were to centre the light fixture on the ceiling, then it wouldn't be centered over the table....which is what I would like.

One of my little pet peeves is the misplacement of ceiling fixtures that one often sees in real homes. How often have you looked up, particularly in a dining room and the chandelier is wired to the middle of the ceiling and then a hook has been placed about a foot or two over so that the chandelier can be swagged over the centre of the table. There will be no swagging of light fixtures in my little house! So even at this early stage of construction, plans must still take into account future furniture placement.

Even in the kitchen, placing the ceiling fixture in the middle may not work. I have cabinets on both sides and the ceiling fixtures should be in the middle of them and not the walls. Since the cabinets on the left are in the bay area this may change where the centering point really is.

Because of the quality of the wood, I don't want to risk making grooves in the floor to conceal the wires but I think the wiring can be taped down under the flooring and still be unnoticeable. It is thin enough and if I make sure that it is absolutely flat there shouldn't be any....bumps in the hardwood floors. I've made the flooring removable so that if need be in the future, I can still get to the wiring.

I still have time to figure out all the little lighting details before my final fixtures arrive.....and I still have to paint the house white yet!