Friday

 

Our designer has given her approval for using two different lights for the garage and entrance.  She agreed with us that the style and materials were similar enough that it would look planned. She also agreed that the two models were best suited for their respective places because of where they attach to the junction box. She will be discussing options with the contractor for preparing the platform on the column for hanging of the skinny fixture. We thought they would work, but it's good to get a professional opinion.

Here's the garage light.

It will hang about here. They sort of disappear in the daytime, which is good. We like that they are subtle. At night, in addition to lighting up the glass, light will also shoot out the top and bottom of the fixtures.

Same for the entrance lights. They may not even look like lights during the day.

Here are both lights in one picture, only not in the proper positions.

Late in the afternoon, our house number plaque arrived. That's the metal plaque above.

The numbers adhere with strong magnets, which makes it easy to clean: just remove the magnets and wipe and replace.

To get free shipping, I ordered another set of numbers for the mailbox. Now you can see the address from both directions. We have an abstract flower bed underneath the mailbox. When it warms up, we may bring a bit more organization to the edging, or leave it as it is. Maybe add some mulch.

We hung the address plaque.

The numbers are much easier to read in real life. The camera can't quite capture the light and shadows as well as the eye.

Nighttime

We look forward to when the landscape lights put white light--not yellow--on the house, equally on both sides. 

We returned two LED flood lights with the accent light to Whole Foods and then ordered two new LED lights without the accent light. When they arrive and we hang them, we will be finished with outdoor floodlights. 

We ordered two more lights like the entrance lights for the side and back doors, except they will be 13 inches instead of 18. When we ordered the entrance lights, the 13-inch size was not available. I just happened to look one more time before I began searching for something small and compatible. When they arrive, we will be close to hiring the electricians to take up the old high voltage garden lights and pole light and install low voltage accent lights across the two beds on each side of the entrance. We probably will not replace the pole and lantern. The electricians will also install a whole-house surge protector at the electrical panel. It's likely they will need to hang most the new fixtures because the old ones look difficult to remove. They've been hanging in the elements for 35 years and may have to be cut off. I've been lucky so far with the flood lights. We're making progress. The next big step is to have the light platform on the columns modified for the new lights.

We enjoyed a 69 degree afternoon, but tomorrow 30 mph winds will bring in the cold and send temperature plummeting throughout the day, bottoming out at 33 degrees tomorrow night, a record for us since moving here and the coldest temperature in a decade, we hear. I have an indoor project planned.

Thursday

Today's projects were gutter repair and outdoor light hanging. It warmed up to 63 degrees after a very cold 40-degree morning walk. I headed to Ace to get the right screws and some caulk.

The gutter at the top of the entrance canopy was leaking at the miter seam when it rained last. It dripped down onto the low wall. I believe the caulking came loose when the roofers were working with the gutters. We could call them to come fix it, but it seemed like a minor thing that we could fix ourselves. I got the telescoping ladder out and cut out the old gutter caulk, vacuumed out leftover shingle gravel and debris, and then put down new caulk. We'll see how it does the next time it rains.

Then I moved on to light fixture hanging. John and I together figured out which breaker was for the lights and shut them down. I started with the fixture on the north side. 

The new light is much smaller. We hope that the accent light is not too bright for the neighbors.

Then we moved on to one of the rear lights. We decided that the center one made the most sense. It's in test mode above. We caulked all three of the new lights to keep the water out.

It's in the test accent mode above. It's likely that we'll not put the other two fixtures like these in the backyard. We'll probably return them and order two more that are just motion sensing without the accent light. Those two lights are at the corners of the back yard. That's five flood light fixtures just on the ends and back of the house. Ten bulbs. The previous owners were very security conscious, apparently.

Our garage lights arrived early this evening. On the left is the garage light; on the right is the entrance light. There are two of each. They are similar enough that I think we could use both. The skinny one (by 3/4 inch) is for the column (because it mounts at the top) and the wide one is for the garage (because it mounts in the middle). We'll hold them up tomorrow in place and see how they look.

The accent light on the north side of the house is on. I don't think it's too bright.

The LED flood lights and accent light on the north side.

The center back side of the house with just the accent light on.

The new fixture is fully on where John is standing, flood and accent. The old fixture is on by the bathroom door.

All three lights are on with the new LED fixture in the middle.

The accent light alone in the middle.

The accent light on the south side.

The accent lights on the south and east (backyard) of the house. 

Same picture as above with the interior lights off.

We have to decide if it would be too much to have two more accent lights, one on each end of the back side of the house. If so, then we can return the last two lights and get two regular motion-sensing lights to replace the old ones.

Accent lights and street light

 

Tuesday

 

The new entrance lights arrived this afternoon. If we keep these, the platform underneath will need to be lengthened.

The new fixture would hang about here.

I think it will work if we can get the platform extended. The fixture must rest on a flat surface all the way around. 

The garage fixture arrives Friday. It is a similar design but with an attachment in the middle of the fixture. We will wait until we see them all before we decide to keep them and modify the platform or return them and start over.

I unboxed the security lights and decided to hang one to see if we like the accent light. We learned that it stays on all night. The accent light is at the bottom of the fixture.

This is the old fixture.

This is the new fixture.

This is the accent light in test mode. It's off during the day.

This is the accent light at twilight.

This is the full light at night.

Two spots and the accent light.

This is the accent light alone (on the south wall). We need to decide if we want three of these on the backside of the house (east) with the accent lights staying on all night. They are pretty bright and can't be adjusted. I think we would like one on the north side of the house. 

Night view with the new south accent light.

Sunday

 

After lunch we took a long walk on the Pinellas Trail, alongside this Roseate Spoonbill.

It was busy on the trail, lots of bikes, runners, walkers. We stopped by Knot on Main to see what it looked like after the hurricane last year wiped the place out. It looked clean and fresh, but the stuff for sale was similar to what they had before: beach-themed stuff, jewelry, some antiques and collectibles. 

Friday

 

After lots of looking, we've decided to order the light above for the entrance, one for each column.

The main reason is that the fixture attaches to the wall at the top. The junction box on the columns won't allow for this design if it attaches in the middle because the box is too high up the column.

We decided to order two of these, our favorite, for the garage. 

This fixture attaches in the middle as you can see above, which will make this fixture sit at the perfect height.

In the picture above, we marked with painter's tape where the two fixtures would sit based on their design and the placement of the junction boxes. 

The entrance lights will hang from the top, but there is plenty of room for them to hang. You can see that the overhang won't allow for a fixture that attaches to the junction box in the middle of the fixture.

The garage lights will hang from the center of the fixture. It's a perfect placement. Indeed, if we were the get the other fixtures for this location, they would hang too low.

The two designs use similar materials and style and are made by the same company. The garage lights are 3/4 inches wider, but both are 18 inches tall. Both can be adjusted for 3000, 4000, or 5000 kelvins. Both are LED with integrated bulbs. They are also affordable and available on Amazon; therefore, if we don't like them, we can return them free. It's possible that we may like the garage set but not the entrance set. In that case, we may have to order two more of the garage type and modify the platform and the junction box on the columns to accommodate that fixture. If we use the entrance lights, we're going to have to modify the platform anyway because both fixtures need to be mounted on a flat surface.

We went round and round with various options, but ultimately decided to get the ones we love and try to make the other pieces fit.

One option, if these fixtures work out, is to forego the lamp post lantern and spread the low voltage lights from the dining room to the right front bed, getting rid of the high voltage line in the dirt altogether. This option would allow us to place the low voltage transformer at an existing outlet on the garage exterior wall beside the bird of paradise plant on the same line they were going to place the astronomical timer on. It would simplify things and ensure a consistent light color across the beds. We're fond of having a lamp post though.

The side door and back door lights are still to be determined. Sometimes you just have to trust your gut and make a decision and trust that the other decisions will fall into place.

The entrance lights arrive Monday; the garage lights arrive Friday.

We enjoyed a mostly sunny 77 degree day in January. Can't complain.