Kitchen Lights & Floors

Conrad removed the dusty, ugly 1980's chandelier that was reminiscent of a wagon wheel, but with less charm, and replaced it with these cool track lights. He worked really hard getting them up and they are gorgeous, but the result is a dark kitchen! We are so disappointed. I hope there is a way to make them work without having to take it all down and replace it with another chandelier. I don't know if our ceilings are so high that the light isn't reaching all the way down. I wonder if we need to reposition the lights, or the bulbs can be replaced with something brighter, or if we add more lights to the track that will give me the bright kitchen I want.

We went shopping for cork floors. Based on reviews, I like US Floors, but they only sell through dealers. Their cork was about $9/s.f. Very expensive. We found cork at Lumber Liquidators for about $3/s.f., but the sample they gave us was so soft that I could tear it and dent it with my fingernails. That's not going to work for me. I'm so sad to have to reconsider my dream of cushy cork floors, but need something durable. I guess Conrad can put the same tile in the kitchen that he's putting by the front and back doors, and I can buy squishy foam rugs for all the standing I do in front of the stove and sink.