Smart Kitchen Cabinet Lights

Back before Lincoln was born, I had installed cheap, dumb, under-cabinet LEDs from IKEA in the kitchen. They worked, but they were always-on, not very bright, and had a lot of extra wire that looked messy.

Later, I installed RGB LED strips above the cabinets. These were controlled by an IR remote, but were still significantly brighter (and more fun!) than the under-cabinet lights.

Over the past couple of months, I've been upgrading the cabinet LEDs with WiFi controllers and extending the RGB strips below the cabinets.

The cabinets by the sink were fairly simple: it was a single, flat stretch of cabinets, and there was a pre-existing gap in the back corner to run the wires between the above-cabinet controller and the below-cabinet LED strip. The hardest part was mounting the flexible LED strip with screws (the adhesive backing on the strip proved to be worthless).

The cabinets on the other side of the kitchen (by the stove) were much more of a problem. There were three distinct "zones", and none of them had a great route for wires to run from the top of the cabinets to the bottom.

I eventually realized I could hide the wires with some left-over trim. I cut a groove in the trim with my father-in-law's table saw, sized for the extension wires:

I installed the LED strip, and drilled a hole through the cabinet wall near the back:

The wire ran between the cabinets, up to the top.

And I covered the exposed wire with a grooved piece of trim!

Then I repeated those steps for the cabinet on the left side of the stove:

The far-left cabinets required a single hole to be drilled:

Then I tied all the wires into the WiFi controller (the little white box), and got everything configured on the network:

And there it is!

The top and bottom lights are tied together at the controller, so they will always have the same color and brightness. But that would be easy to change if I feel like spending the money on additional controllers. Also, right now the LED strips can only be controlled from a smartphone app, but I'm hoping to tie them into the rest of my smart house controls (including voice control) in the future.

***Update 10/6/2016***

My first attempt at adding these to OpenHAB didn't work, but it turns out someone made a rudimentary on/off Alexa skill for these controllers!

Chalkboard and Grill Tools

I picked up a chalkboard from IKEA as-is recently:

I assembled it upside down, and added a bunch of hooks, then mounted it on the wall by the back door:

A little chalk to add color:

And then I hung up the grill tools. The cast iron pan also goes with the grill:

When we left these tools on the grill, they mysteriously wound up all over the patio. Now they are safely out of reach of little hands.

Three Smart Switches and a Flashlight

Brianna's gone on a business trip, so I'm free to modify the house's electrical switches!

Today I worked on the Kitchen: there were two light fixtures (by the sink and by the kitchen table) that hadn't been automated yet, and one of those switches shared a junction box with the switch for the back deck light:

I didn't just want to replace the switches, though: I wanted to add an outlet. So I did, cause no one was around to stop me.

I've floated this idea to a couple people, but no one has sympathized with my desire to add the outlet. However, I feel confident that none of them have had a pregnant wife request they find a pet tortoise hidden somewhere in the backyard after dark and with snow starting to fall.

Now I'll have a flashlight ready to go on my way out the door!

When Lincoln is down for the night, I'll work on getting these three switches integrated with the rest of the smart house system.

What did I do with Lincoln while I was installing the physical switches? I gave him a cracker and told him to play quietly by himself:

He spent a good chunk of the afternoon bumping into my shins while I worked.

Voice Controlled Lights with Amazon Echo and OpenHAB

I finally got OpenHAB running again. It required four minor version software upgrades installed across three computers, but it's working again.

Once OpenHAB was running again, it was pretty easy to get the Amazon Echo to control the kitchen lights (primarily using this guide). I can add more switches, but I have to do it one at a time and there's only one smart switch in the kitchen (where the Echo is) right now.

Glad to have forward motion on home automation again! There are two more switches to upgrade in the kitchen, and I think I can make them all voice-controlled as a group :-)

The Trouble with LED Lights...

...is that they just don't kill bugs:

New Pan Rack

Brianna found a Facebook group dedicated to buying, selling, and trading in Parker (basically a small version of Craigslist). Earlier this week, she saw a pan rack for $40. She picked it up today, and I installed it.

I've been wanting a pan rack ever since we got eleventy-two pans for our wedding (seriously, who needs more than one!?!) that all had to be nested in-order to fit inside a cabinet, and this rack looks like it was designed to go with our pans. It definitely fills up some of the space in the kitchen.

New Dishwasher

The dishwasher that came with the house has never been in great shape. Recently, the dish racks have gotten really bad: a lot of the bars are simply missing, and rust is showing through everywhere. I have patched the rubber coating on the metal racks twice, but it never lasts long. Replacing just the racks (nothing else!) would cost three. hundred. dollars.

Today, Brianna and I decided we were ready to just replace the dishwasher entirely. We packed Link up and went to our local Sears Outlet. They had four refurbished dishwashers that were within our price range and mostly had the features we wanted. We bought the fifth one, which was just a little outside our price range, but fit our dishes perfectly (we had brought a plate and bowl with us, to test - the sales guy said he had never seen that before). While we were checking out, Link had one of the biggest poops of his life thus far. We managed get Link's diaper changed and load the dishwasher (an Electrolux with a small dent in the front panel) into the back of Brianna's hatchback, then headed home.

Here's a shot of the old dishwasher:

In the course of detaching the old dishwasher, I discovered the sink drain has been leaking. (Ah, the joys of home-ownership. My Dad warned me, but there's a difference between knowing and experiencing).

***Update: the next day - Leak is fixed. Whoever installed the garbage disposal just mucked up a bit. Everything is water-tight now. Years of water damage on the cabinet floor though. I picked up a mold-testing kit from Home Depot - we'll see if anything comes up.***

The new dishwasher fits our plates much better than the old one: in the old one, the plates were constantly in danger of falling forward:

The new one also makes much better use of the vertical space:

Here's the final product!

The new, white dishwasher matches the rest of the kitchen much better than the old black one did. It's also a LOT quieter.

More Child-Proofing

I was reminded that a lot of children mistake dishwasher detergent packs for candy recently, so I installed some "child-proof" looks on the cabinet beneath the sink, where we keep most of our cleaning supplies (the rest are in the laundry room, five feet off the ground).

I hate these locks already.

Power Outlets Above Kitchen Cabinets

I doubt this will interest anyone but me: I had some alone time with the house today, so I installed power outlets above the kitchen cabinets. This will allow us to have LED strip lighting up there without running an extension cord down to the counter.

Above-Cabinet Lights

Now that we have flowers above the kitchen cabinets, I've been wanting to put lights up there.

I managed to snag a strip of LED lights on sale on Amazon:

And just for fun, it's full RGB:

Now I need to get another strip for the other side of the kitchen.

Flowers in the Kitchen

Brianna has been talking about putting artificial sunflowers above the cabinets in the kitchen for a while now, and this evening we finally did it!

The sunflowers came from Hobby Lobby in bunches. We separated the bunches and cut the stems down to size. The ducting from the range hood made things somewhat difficult, but we were able to work around it.

Now we have a little more color in the kitchen!

Under-Cabinet Lighting

I had a very lazy weekend. Pretty much just hung out with Brianna and Link all day Saturday and Sunday.

I did do one minor project: I added a light under that last kitchen cabinet.

I found an LED power supply at IKEA as-is several weeks ago, but didn't want to bunch up all the electrical cord under the cabinet. So Saturday morning, I got out my screwdriver, wire clippers and soldering iron, and shortened the cords (final product above, leftover wire below):

Then is was a simple matter to slap it up under the cabinet with some command strips.

It looks much more balanced now.

Here's what the cord situation looks like for the three cabinets on the left:

If I get bored in the future, I might pull those cords down and do a similar shortening trick.

Doggy Door

Patrick came up this afternoon to help with some house stuff. His dog Otis hung out in the back yard. Well, most of Otis was in the back yard.

Cabinet Crown Moulding

(Is "moulding" British? Google returned both "molding" and "moulding")

While I was at work today, Patrick showed up at our house (as arranged earlier) and installed crown moulding on the kitchen cabinets, hiding the duct work I installed this weekend, and generally making the kitchen look much much fancier.

I really wasn't expecting this step until well after Lincoln's birth (due date is December 2nd!) but it sure looks nice to have it done. As nice as it is to have a functioning range hood, the duct work sure was ugly. And now you can't see it!

Thank you very much Patrick: it looks beautiful.

Thanksgiving Prep

Nothing like a combination of nesting instinct and knowing relatives are on their way for dinner to inspire some clean-up:

Under-Cabinet Lights

Didn't do a whole lot tonight. I returned some left-over materials from the range hood installation (got seventeen bucks back, woo!) and then after dinner, I got the under-cabinet lights by the stove working for the first time since I painted the kitchen.

Not sure what to do about the cabinet on the right, yet. I couldn't figure out a way to run a wire over there now that the range hood is in place. 

Range Hood

This has been a two-day project: I finally got that range hood installed. And it's only been five months since I bought the stupid thing!

The first time I attempted this project, I ran into a wall stud I was unwilling to cut (the left wall, in this photo):

It wasn't until I was messing around with Christmas lights that I realized the back of the house is not one continuous line: about three and a half feet of the wall behind the cabinets is actually exterior wall!

That realization, combined with the plan to have Thanksgiving dinner at our house (it's a small group this year, and that way Brianna stays close to our hospital) led to me installing the range hood this weekend.

Saturday was very good weather - forty five degrees Fahrenheit and sunny. So I installed the exterior vent first. Sunday, when I took this photo, was of course snowy, which made me glad I got this part out of the way early:

Yes, I still have to take down the masking tape.

Once that was done, I prepped the range hood and started work on running the ducting through the cabinets:

I had also trimmed down the top of the cabinets to keep the ducting low:

With Brianna's help, I got the range hood into place:

At this point, I made a mistake. I assembled the in-cabinet ducting, but forgot about the back-draft preventer, which I had left in another room. I had already cut the ducting to size without it, and had to spend quite a bit of time taking things apart and fixing them in order get the back-draft preventer in place. However, things did fit together (in terms of matching diameters) much better once that missing piece was in place.

After that fiasco, I got the electrical sorted out:

And then I cleaned up my mess and called it a night.

Today, I worked on the ducting on top of the cabinets. I made myself an L shape:

And then made all the connections above the cabinets.

In the process, I made a (very small) blood sacrifice to the gods of home improvement. I think that's actually the first one for this house! (Electrical shocks are a different matter)

Later on, and hopefully with some help, I'll get some crown molding on top of the cabinets, which will hide the ducting from sight completely. For now, the vent hood actually looks pretty decent, and is very functional:

...Darn - you can't see in this photo, but all the steam from the skillet on the front burner is going into the hood - and it was on the "low" setting!

Comparing the work I did this weekend to work I've seen someone like my Uncle Gary do is a little disheartening - my "carpentry skills" have a looooong way to go. Fortunately, I can call for advice - Thanks for taking my phone call, Uncle Gary!