So the latest project to work on in my time off is replacing all of the light fixtures on the outside of the house. Originally I was just looking to replace the yard light in the front since the top was hanging on by a thread and I had cut the wires quite a few times. So it hasn't worked for most of the time we have been in this house. My plan was just to replace the yard light head and re-wire the fixture. Yes the other lights on the house were made of this quasi-brass looking stuff that was real tarnished and looked like crap, but my idea was the most economical. Jen was looking for an exact match for the other lights, but do they really need to match, being 40 feet from the house and under a tree??? I was informed that they did.. by the boss. Well we had been looking around for a yard light over the past year, but none of them were what Jen wanted. Who knows were these lights came from or if they make them any more. My mom was over the other day and commented about the lights as well. Then she offered to help us get some new lights for the outside. Not only a new yard light but new lights for the entire front of the house (so they would match). So Monday mom heads out with Jen to go shopping (always dangerous). I have an opinion about the stuff that we buy for the house, but I figure that my taste is similar to my mom's to they will pick something good out. They come home with 4 new house lights and a new yard light. I figured that the only colors that would look good on our house (with the current paint colors) would be either brass or white to match the trim. They ended up buy white fixtures that I wasn't too sure about, but after putting them up, look real good. The new lights are a different open-bottom concept that put them a little lower than the current lights. On either side of our garage are two bushes that grow up to a point. They usually block the garage lights when they grow so I have hacked them back once already. I decide to hack them back again so you can see the lights. I get out the saw and cut the bush down about halfway, then proceed to trim the outer branches to try and make them even. So I am working on making them even and cut the wrong limb leaving a gaping hole right in the front of the bush. Son of a..... There is no way to fix that problem without making both the bushes look stupid, so I do the next best thing. I grab a piece of the freshly cut bush and put in the hole. Now I can say that my bush has a toupee. I know that the "toupee" will die eventually, but maybe I can cover it with webbing for Halloween and corn stalks for the fall. Either that or I am going to start taking pieces from the identical bushes in the backyard until it grows in again. Is there bush Rogain? The house light install doesn't come without it's little problems (like most of my projects do). The bolts that came with the kit to install the lights on the brackets were too long, and the bolts from the old lights were too short. After looking through my bolt collection I decide to hacksaw the long bolts to make them work. After getting over that little problem the installation of the other lights went pretty quick with only a few distractions including the boys "helping" me and a short rain shower (don't want to work on electrical during a thunderstorm). The lights look really good and match the house perfectly.
The next project the next day was the yard light. This would require quite a bit more work since it included laying new wire to the post. Also I had to replace the post since the new fixture was white and wouldn't go with the black post. I offered to just paint the post to save a little time and money, but was out voted by the womenfolk. First things first, I go out and rip the old head off of the yard light (God that felt good). I have been wanting to do that for years. Then I pull the post out of the ground with the wiring. Somebody actually got a clue and put a conduit under the sidewalk for the yard light which made it easy to go under the walk. The new pole was probably 9 feet tall which means I would have to dig deeper than the old pole, I decided to take this opportunity to move the pole away from the tree right next to it. I call the "keeper of the tools" (my father-in-law) to get a post hole digger, since he owns every tool known to man and to see if he has enough wire to do the job. I get over there to find out that he doesn't have a post hole digger or enough wire. Nuts, there goes my back. So a quick trip to Menards for wire and some connectors and head for home. I start digging my new hole. I get down to what I think is pretty deep, put in the pole, and see that I am at least a good 2 feet away from where I need to be. So I am pounding away at this Indiana clay a little at at time with a cracked spade and not going very far. Pretty tired and sore I go into the garage to see if I can find a pole or something to help break up the clay. There in the garbage can of tools is an old ice fishing auger that I saved from the auction at the lake cottage for whatever reason. hmmmmm. I wonder if it would work on dirt. I know it looked a bit silly using an ice fishing auger on dirt but it worked fantastic. I was able to cut down another couple of feet in a few minutes. I put in the post and leveled it up, then ran the wire up to the house. I connected the wires together with some waterproof connectors so hopefully it will be able to keep the connections from shorting out like it has done in the past. I button everything up and hit the switch and it works great. As I am putting away the boxes I find that the post came with an electronic eye to turn the light on and off, but I kept tripping the breaker so I will have to look up the instructions for connecting those. Overall it was about 3 hours to install the yard light with all of the little problems and again with the boys "helping" me. Thank God that Christoper took a good nap.
Not sure what the next project is going to be. On the job front I never did hear back from that interview two weeks ago even though I know they have not filled the position. I have a job interview on Friday, but besides that there isn't anything that even looks close to something that I would want to do. We will see.
No comments:
Post a Comment