I couldn't find a place I wanted with southern/western exposure (unless it faced a wall--no light there!) so I ended up in a relatively bright place but facing north.

My poor poor plants. And now I have to figure out what to do with them.
1. I have to get a light meter, right? Any suggestions for something not bank breaking?
2. I suppose I have to set up some sort of a get-up for the catts and oncs to get enough light, but i'm engineeringly-retarded. I've 32"+32" to either side of the windows that I thought I could put a shelving unit and attach some lights to the underside, like I saw some people describe, but I have no idea how to actually do any of the attaching, light rigging, etc. with the fluorescent tubes.
3. This all has to be decent looking too since i'm in a studio, so there's no getting away from how it all looks
Any suggestions??
Thanks
Irene