I was posed with a dilemma upon moving into our new house. Our media room doesn't have a light fixture in it. Oh, it had a light switch on the wall, but after trying the four outlets located on each wall, we discovered that none of these outlets were actually controlled by the light switch. Good ol' new mexican electricians. Okay. I thought I had solved the problem by putting a torchiere in the corner next to the couch so we could turn the light on while sitting down. The light itself is connected to a little box that transforms the light fixture into a "touch light" of sorts just by touching any metal on the light. Good enough for this lazy american.

But then I realized that my and the Mother Unit's eyes were beginning to suffer from eye strain. The problem: there still wasn't enough light in the room to watch tv easily.  Also, the spot that the torchiere was in prevented us from having a place to put our drinks (read: late-nite margaritas) while watching the ol' boob tube. Also, the Mother Unit and I have been watching a LOT of HGTV. So I present to you my solution. Its called (drum roll please....)

THE HOUSEDAD LIGHTBOX!:

Mother Unit was not pleased with my around the corner, ninja-camera abilities. What the hell kind of ninja am I anyway? I didn't even get her face. Oh well.

My old job, Form Plus Function, had a sale this weekend. 40% off. I was like "Hell yeah! Now I can finally afford the exspensive ass stuff this place sells!" I jumped in the old Pontiac and picked up a nice end table. It originally had a cubby hole sort of thing on the type and a drawer for storage on the bottom. That is until I broke out the drill, screws, and my findings at Home Depot. There is a short video (that hopefully should load quickly) at the end of this post showing this piece of "art" in action. Anyway, here is the list of items that were needed to build this bad boy:

a. (2) 12" fluorescent light strips that can be linked together.

b. (1) piece of plastic. Remember the plastic that covered the long, rectangular florescent lights in your elementary school? You know, the kind that scratched your hands when you hit it while standing on your desk? Well, they still sell the light covers for those at Home Depot in 24"x48" sheets. Awesome.

c. Drill, wood drill bit, screws, and some cheap door hardware.

d. (1.5) baby-and-mom-free hours

So here goes: You take the drill and aforementioned bit and drill a hole through the back of a $162.00 East Indian hardwood end-table from Jaipur. Go ahead. Its fun mutilating expensive furniture. The hole has to be big enough for the cord that will connect the two light strips. After that is done, take a light strip and mount it to the backside about 3 inches from the top of the piece. Make sure to not use a ruler or a level. Its more fun making holes with the drill only to find that you were off by an 1/8 of an inch. Four times. On one side. Do the same on the inside of the door-less cubby hole. Connect the two light strips together and plug them into an available outlet to make sure they work. Don't forget to spill Guinness on your fingers and rub the end of the plug with your hand. Electricity will be kind enough to make sure you never forget.

Now that you have the light strips mounted, measure the opening of the cubby hole. In my case, it was 15 inches square. This is were the plastic light cover comes in. Because its 24"x48", you have some room to play if you cut the plastic wrong or get mad and break it in half. I made my piece 16"x16" so that I would have some room to mount the hardware onto the wood and plastic sheet. After another 20 minutes of cursing you should be finished. Have a look at the video to see what I mean:(It will take about a minute to load, but its worth it. Check it out.)