shopping; recessed lighting

As planned - we did some major shopping this past weekend. I love the big box stores. A lot. I assume everyone loves these stores. It's fun to shop there. It's even fun when you leave and realize you've spent twice as much as you hoped. Fortunately, we over estimated this trip and left the place under budget. The biggest problem - some of these big shopping trips involve as much manual labor as digging a canal. We considered having them deliver the drywall and lumber for $90.00 - because, one) we couldn't fit any of the items in our CR-V and, two) having someone else carry the stuff into the house would have been a welcome luxury. Instead, we rented a truck from the store for about $30, saved about $60 and our biceps are wondering how a day without the gym ended like this.

So it doesn't look like that much, but that's thirty sheets of heavy drywall.
Okay, on to the recessed lighting. We found out during the research and shopping that there are two basic differences in recessed lighting fixtures. One is for a remodel and one is for new construction (i.e. no drywall).

We had a need for both - the one the left is for new construction: see the long braces? Those allow you to brace the light fixture in between two ceiling joists. This is ideal and keeps the housing firmly in place. The fixture on the right is set up for a remodel - which is what I did today. The lack of braces lets you shove the fixture up through the ceiling and into place. Here you can see the fixture half way into the ceiling:

And now, into place:

This next step was upon suggestion from the home improvement store lighting guy. Apparently, if you follow the typical remodel instructions the light can eventually lean or become loose from the ceiling, but some Liquid Nails will keep everything in place:

Finish installing the trim, return the power and voila! ...one step closer