Just call me Jane of All Trades

I'm feeling pretty special this afternoon. I finally achieved the elusive goal of lighting in my living room. My new living room has a tall vaulted ceiling and no lighting whatsoever. It does, however, have two plugs connected to a light switch, with the idea being that I can plug in a lamp or whatever and turn it on when I walk in the door. But seriously, who wants a LAMP in the middle of their living room floor? So I had been plotting for a while to put up some lighting. Enter track lighting. Now I know, track lighting is so 90s, but I needed some lighting that I could mount on the wall and plug in, and also provide plenty of lighting for the whole room, not just focused lighting. Pretty much every wall/ceiling mounted light out there is only intended for hardwiring. But, because I'm super woman, I started researching track lighting. Here is a bit of what I learned:

1) Most track lighting in the US is one of three types: "H" track, "J" track, or "L" track. H tracks are the most common nowadays, but it's always risky to just pick up some random lights and hope they match with a random track.

2) H track lighting has two metal strips on one side and one metal strip on the other. So when you're looking at the light itself, it will have two metal connectors on one side, and one connector on the other side. When you put the light onto the track, MAKE SURE IT'S GOING IN THE RIGHT WAY, two connector side to two-metal strip side.

3) Installing track lighting that plugs in is actually way easy once you figure out that it's easy. The hard part is really figuring that out, because people don't really use the plug-in option for track lights. Or if they do, they're too embarrassed to blog about it. I don't care though, because I DID IT MYSELF!! All you need are: a track section, the plug kit that plugs into one end of the track section, lamps, and lightbulbs. The trick is making sure it all connects. This is why Home Depot has a million track lighting kits, and very few individually-sold components. Because I'm cheap, I managed to cobble everything together on my own for less than the cost of the kit, but generally, it will be a lot less stress to just buy the kit.

I want to brag, so I'll tell you where I got everything:
Craigslist - (7) lamps, Lithonia LTC WRFM Par 30 (I think these are discontinued and probably only sold to contractors, because I found very little information online). An older guy was selling these for $15! Seven lamps for $15?? I couldn't pass it up. These would probably sell for $15 each, normally. They were even still in the original boxes. This is what I started with, so I had to work my way backward to make sure everything matched. I ended up using only three lamps though, so the other four will just go into storage "just in case."

Ultimate consignment - (3) Par 30 halogen flood lightbulbs, $1.33 each. These were ridiculously cheap, at the local step-above-thrift place in Mesa. Also brand new in the box, these things go for a minimum of about $10 each, so I seriously scored. Notice the Par 30 is the same as the lamps.

Home Depot - 4' track section and plug kit. After trying in vain to find a track section for cheap on Craigslist or any of the discount hardware stores in town, I finally broke down and bought it at Home Depot. Of course, because my luck is what it is, the store I went to was the only one in the valley that was sold out of the white tracks. I really wanted to get this up though, and I knew I'd lose momentum if I didn't buy this RIGHT NOW, so I got the black track section. It was $10 for the track section and $10.50 for the plug kit.

Total: $30.92 plus tax. (and $3 for cord clips)

So, onto the pictures:

Assembling everything:

The wall.

When I was measuring where to drill, I measured the full length, then subtracted the 36" between the two drill holes in the track section, and divided the remainder in half. The remainder was what I measured from the end of the wall in, for the first drill hole. Then I measured 36" from that hole for the second one. If that didn't make sense, comment and I'll scan in my drawing/diagram.

Track section. Can you see how one side has two copper strips and the other has just one? That means it's an H track and your lamps should similarly match.

The part of the plug kit that plugs into the end of the section. The end cap has a little screw that you just unscrew and remove. The plug will be white side up, and metal side down (against the wall/ceiling), so make sure the track section end you use matches up. I at first unscrewed the wrong side because the side with the two copper strips didn't match up with the plug kit.

It's up! This CAN be done with one, awesome person, but trust me, it's a lot easier with two people. You definitely need a drill. The track section came with toggle bolts for mounting to the ceiling and anchors and screws for mounting to the wall. I had to google "how to use a screw and anchor" to figure out how it worked though because the instructions didn't cover that. Yay google.

So it's not the prettiest thing out there, but I could really care less. Light is light.

I did, however, need a way to keep the cord against the wall on its way down to the outlet. so I grabbed these cord clips for $3. 

Naturally though, it couldn't all go smoothly. I ended up about two feet from the outlet, go figure, so I grabbed an extension cord. I'll try to find a shorter, less conspicuous one later, but I was too eager to see my creation.

I attached the lamps. As noted above, make sure you're aligning them with the correct side of the track. You put the light in and twist it a quarter turn clockwise. You can see the beginnings of tacking the cord down. I still have a few to tack down though (my arms got tired so no pic of the as-yet unfinished section yet). Don't the lamps look fabulous though? They're kind of an industrial look because they only have a wire frame, instead of a full cup surrounding the lightbulb.

And presenting...(cue hallelujah chorus please...)

They work!!!!!!

If you are a single woman and you think you can't do basic hardware/repair projects (and/or the handyman doesn't think you can do it)...you absolutely can. Just study, study study. I'll be the first to admit I couldn't have done this project without the internet. But we have it, and you can do it!