State of the Kitchen

Our counter is in. It has been for a while but it's hard to appreciate given the rest of the mess. We're very happy with the color and pattern and impatient to keep going. Due to some supply and schedule delays, it's been like this for about a week now. We have a few pictures of the installation in progress, but they're on a different camera, so I may post them later. Here's the finished view:

Then yesterday, the rest of the project began. First was electrical day - setting up the recessed lighting. Here's our ceiling "before" picture - just one sad little light in the middle and a spotlight over the sink

After quite a few hours of labor, having to measure and check for joists and then carve out a few extra holes in the plaster to help feed the wiring...

 We got to this! Obviously there are some holes that need patching.

Here's a view of some of the planning that went into it. He kept having to measure out four even spots for the light, only to find out that one of them would be in line with a joist. Then he'd have to start over. Oh, and note the super classy yellow circle above where the hold light was. I guess the previous owners were too lazy to take the light fixture off when they painted the ceiling.

Speaking of painting, we have a tough choice to make. A quick trip to Sherwin Williams and I came back with a range more or less of a similar tone to our current color. The kitchen/dining room, you may remember, is the only room that we never repainted. We were happy enough with the color when we moved in. While I couldn't find an exact match at the store (keeping in mind that this paint is also at least 10 years old), I found one pretty close, called Svelte Sage.

Svelte Sage is the top sample (of two) on the very left. We knew we definitely didn't want to go any more beige/warm, so I started from there and moved cooler. They're laid out more or less from light to dark (up to down) and then warm to cool (left to right). I took a picture with the lights on and then in natural light.

Any suggestions? I have my own ideas but I'm curious to hear yours.