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Is it worth it to get undercabinet lighting at all, or is it fine if there is no under cabinet lighting in the kitchen? We've never had under cabinet lighting before so I don't think we really need it but hearing from others about how essential they find under cabinet lighting has us wondering maybe we should get valence lighting for the new home and now we're having trouble deciding if we'd need it or not... Thinking in terms of for when we live in the home but also in case in the future if we ever need to sell or rent it out what would other people prefer. What do you recommend?

We will have valences under the upper cabinets regardless of if we get the valence lighting or not. Should we spend approx $350 to get prewiring (outlets under the upper cabinets and a seperate switch for them) before the backsplash is put in? Can undercabinet lighting (wiring and installation) be added after backsplash or is it messy/costly to do after backsplash?

definetly get the prewire done with switch for all the reasons you mentioned. Doing it afterwards will be messy and costly.

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Do you think Mattamy would put the outlets for the prewiring horizontal and right up along or near the bottom of the upper cabinets so that they get hidden with the valence? Does anyone have pics of how they placed these outlets?

They did for me but I made sure it was clearly spelled out during one of our design centre appointments. Besides, the installer generally knows you want this because you asked to tie a switch to that receptacle. And yes, they will put the box in sideways and line it up almost exactly with the bottom of your cabinet - so your valence conveniently hides it.

If you're doing the backsplash yourself after closing, worse case is they get it wrong and you need to fix it (minor pain but quite doable). But if you're paying them to do the backsplash, you need to make sure they get it right from the start.

Thanks Greenjp and Gecko that's very helpful. Gecko do you remember what wording you used to ensure it was clearly spelled out for them?

I don't remember exactly but I'm sure the wording would have been something like "receptacle placed horizontally tight against bottom of cabinets to be used for valence lighting".

I got the upgrade for electrical outlets under cabinets using Gecko's wording (thanks ), but turns out that instead of receptacles I got metal junction boxes. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing, or if that's standard what they do when you ask for outlets for valence lighting? I thought it literally meant getting outlets like this except on the wall rather than on a strip:

Interesting. In my case I got a regular receptacle laid horizontally just under the cabinet - tied to a switch. All the other receptacles were lower down the wall and mounted vertically as usual (used for appliances) and on separate circuits.

It's possible that this is just what they do now. I know that in my case it was difficult to line it up as they had to put the electrical boxes in at the exact height when all they had was a stud wall.