Lights on!

It took most of the day to hook up the wires as I wanted most of the joins to be hidden in the corner, under the mat. That meant stuffing my less than delicate hands into a tiny corner where I really couldn't see what I was doing without peering like an old granny who's lost her glasses. This is what I was doing ... stripping the wires, twisting them together, and then insulating the twisted bit with a wrapping of electrician's tape. The one on the left is finished. The next one is half done, and the other three are waiting to be done. I had to take several breaks during this process.

But when I flipped the switch, everything worked! The light behind the cornice glows slightly. It looks better in real life. The lamps look like oil lamps at a distance. The jury is still out on whether they will get shades (or maybe hurricane lamp chimneys?).

Below is the overall view of the sitting room. You can barely see the mat at the top of the stairs, but it works well to cover the wires. The tables are glued in place. I didn't want them moving around and risk pulling the wires out. The sofa and chairs are movable. I may want to put a rug under them.

Here's a closeup of one of the lamps. That is a plastic bead that I drilled out to accept the bulb. The wires goes down through the tabletop, scoots under the corner of the sofa, then runs along the base of the stair surround. (I can't think of what that little fence is called. I hope that doesn't mean I've been sniffing too much E6000 and stain fumes!)

I noticed that the back of the workbench looks ugly and brown through the front window, so I painted the back of it white. I think with some plants or something colorful on the window sill, it will look okay.

I was almost ready to quit for the night when I decided to make some shelves to go under the bay window in the workshop area. The larger piece will cover the existing sill and hang over about 3/4". There will be one shelf the width of the window, plus the two side pieces. I cut them from balsa and stained them with stain pens, using both dark walnut and golden oak. I wanted to make it look as if they've been there a while. I can't wait to start putting out the toys, but I'm trying to rein in that impulse until I get more furniture made and the outside finished.