Outdoor lighting - now

So, Dave comes home the other day and says, "I bought some lights at Menards, they were on sale, what do you think?" He shows them to me.
Me, "I like them, but I need to see them on the house."
Him, "oooohhh good, (huge sigh of relief) I can't believe you like them."
Me, "I SAID, I like them but I HAVE TO SEE THEM ON THE HOUSE."
Him, "I can't believe you even like them."

You see, for us to agree on light fixtures at this point is a good thing. We have a thing about light fixtures. I like old ones the best. I just do. I have almost all old fixtures in/on our house now. Except for the ones we've started replacing because I insist we bring them with us. It's taken me 15 years to collect them and have him get them rewired and hung up. Most people like newer ones and I figure they won't want the ones we have anyway. They came from garage sales, estate sales, auctions, etc. And when we first got married and tried to find some sconce lights for our bedroom....oh my gosh....he came home with lights from Lowe's three times before I found some very cute lights in a box at a garage sale for a quarter. They were copper, they needed rewired and cleaned up, but they were CUTE. They will be moving with us too.

And with him, he doesn't like the bulb showing through the glass...too ugly to see a bulb. He doesn't like the fixture to have to be unscrewed and the outer cover taken off to change the bulb...too much trouble. If the opening of the fixture faces up, it catches dirt, bugs, etc....never gets cleaned out.

So you see, light fixtures are a big deal for us and to agree at this point really is something.

But I had to see it on the house.
So we went out to the house, and he started holding the fixture up.



The family room entrance off of the porch...to the side, or above?

You see, we don't NEED the light fixtures right now, not really. But what we do need is to decide where to wire them. Because wiring has to be done before insulation and walls. All the things you never think about. And you have to decide, to the sides of the doors or above the doors. And if you go to the sides, you need twice as many fixtures as if you were going above.

I think with the family room/porch entry, above. There's only one window and not really enough room for a fixture on the left side anyway.

Garage door...

Above...it's a garage.

Main entrance...

To the sides. They'll look better with the columns.

Front porch areas with the two story section....to the sides. Columns again...

Oh my goodness....how many fixtures are we going to need? Never, NEVER, thought about this when we were sitting in the architects office! Let's see

basement 2

two story section 4

family room/porch 1

main entrance 2

garage doors, overhead, but two doors so 2

big garage doors 2

kitchen door -hmmm - do we need one there since we plan on building on in the future. Key words - in the future...yes we better....so 1 or 2 I don't know.....1 for now....let's add that up.

FOURTEEN!!!!!

OH MY GOSH FOURTEEN LIGHTS......

Then he takes me to Menards....I think this was all planned out......he shows me the prices and the choices.......now remember the rules.....can't see the bulb, easy to change, need to look old....

And yes, we could have gone to a lighting studio, or another store. We went to Menard's because it was close.....

and seriously, did we need more choices?

This was Sunday, I was getting over the flu from Saturday, and when I saw this......


I said, "I am very happy with the choice you made."

Keep them. Heck, buy two extra....just in case....should we buy more....just in case?

Cindy