Ill start off by appologizing if my terminology isnt correct, so bare with me fellas/ladies. First and foremost My garage is a 22x30 attatched 2 car in a duplex, the lady and I are renting.
That last bit ("renting") complicates things. Is your landlord perchance a private individual, or a very small (perhaps family-operated) commercial enterprise? Or is it a large-ish corporate real estate management firm? Particularly if the former, it might be possible (and worthwhile) to negotiate some sort of accommodation (perhaps in the form of a rent credit) for any "leasehold improvements" you make, as long as you do them in a "strictly by the book" manner with respect to such things as electrical codes, etc. (which MAY mean hiring a licensed/insured/etc. pro to do things which, failing a need to satisfy a bureaucratic requirement, you could in reality easily do yourself).
Currently there are 2 lights in the garage, and when I say 2, I mean two single bulbs. The porcelain based typical ones(im sure you know what Im talking about) They are on either side of the garage width wise(the 30' portion) about 4 feet into the garage from the house. Everything from them to the overhead is bare drywall on the ceiling. Currently have a 100w cfl bulb in each fixture, but the light output is terrible to say the least when Im doing projects.
When you say "a 100w cfl bulb in each fixture" do you mean that literally? Or are you perhaps referring to the so-called "equivalent wattage" claims often made on the packaging for CFLs?
Since Im renting I cant go too overboard with stuff, but il be there for almost another 2 years so what do you guys think I can do to get better light? Im tempted to take the bases out and wire in outlets and hang a couple cheap lowes fixtures but if you guys have better ideas, send them my way.
Obviously, the simplest route would be to go with larger (and/or, with the cited adapters, multiple) CFLs in the existing fixtures, as suggested earlier in the thread. This will give you more light, possibly LOTS more light (depending on what you REALLY have now). But it won't really give you BETTER light, because all that light will still be concentrated into just two point sources.
If you are willing (and permitted) to make "permanent" changes to the space, then it would not be all that expensive to make a MAJOR improvement to the overall lighting via some simple surface-mount fluorescent fixtures. For example, I've cited fixtures similar to these many times:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithonia-Lighting-2-Light-Utility-Light-3348-2L32W-WRAP/100654395
http://www.lowes.com/pd_163697-337-WP232RLU_0__?productId=3181895
http://www.lowes.com/pd_336745-13537-336745_0__?productId=3686312
Installation is relatively simple, especially if you have "open access" to the other side of garage ceiling. And at (roughly) $20-40 per fixture, even a half-dozen or so of them will not be a significant expense when amortized over (at least) two years of usage.
Buy two of these:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-...t-Lamp-Holder-Adapter-R52-00128-00W/100356967
and four of these:
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/8256/FC105-S50OD.html
You'll be amazed at how much better your lighting will be. Now it won't be great if the garage gets very cold, but otherwise you'll have ~43 lumens/sq ft which isn't bad for a cheap and really easy fix.
It's really quite silly to be thinking in terms of "lumens/sq ft" when ALL of the light in a 660 ft.^2 space is concentrated into just two point-sources (and poorly located ones, at that).
If the OP's current lights are (as I suspect) the common 23-watt/~1,600-lumen types which are often claimed to be "equivalent to" a 100-watt incandescent bulb, going to MODERATELY larger bulbs (say, for example,
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/2734/FC40-S50OD.html or
http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/64229/FC55-S41OD.html) would probably be useful. But anything much beyond that is likely to be counterproductive.
At 14,300 lumens per "fixture", your suggested "solution" would be downright BLINDING whenever the OP is facing in their general direction, yet still not put decent light into the other areas of the garage.
