Friday, June 17, 2011

Arts and Crafts Style Backyard Outdoor Lighting

When we bought our home, we had no lights at all in our backyard.  We lived that way for several years.  When we entered our kitchen at night, we couldn't see a thing in the backyard through the window.  It was pitch black.  We get lots of animals in our yard, too, despite the urban setting -- cats, possums, raccoons, and the occasional skunk.  Periodically, something would bang around back there and I'd end up going out with a flashlight to see what was up.

Our initial step was to replace the light on our garage with a light that could be operated by wireless remote control from inside our house.  This is a simple sort of light, but it has general craftsman-style appeal.

The one caveat is -- the wireless control of the light really just doesn't work.  We'd have to play with the switch for a good 60 seconds before it would turn on, and it could take 120 seconds to turn back off (if it turned off at all).  Maybe the technology has improved since we did this in 2005 or 06, but it just wasn't worth the hassle.  We now just use the (wired) light switch in the garage to turn this on and off.

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