Outdoor Lighting Pics.

[Mark42]

Some members asked for pics from the thread about voltage drops over long wire runs. Well, here they are. I added 4 lights to the existing front yard circuit to better light the front walkway, driveway, and side yard (because the kids take Daisy the dog out to do her business and its very dark at night)

The new lighting consists of one 7ft pole light on side yard garden, and three 3-1/2 foot tall post lamps on the walkway and driveway near garage. All the lights are using either 7 watt (front door) 26 watt (tall pole light) or 13 watt (all others) CFL lights.

First Front Walk light. Outlet box to right is where the circuit was tied into.

Second Front Walk light

Side yard pole light

Driveway light by back walkway (yes, that's Daisy - a Bishon)

Close up of base of light to show mounded concrete.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Outdoor Lighting Pics.

Night shots. Actually early morning. Excuse the blurry photos.

This is the whole front yard lighting. Two short pole lamps are hidden behind bushes or cars. The wire exits the house on the left of the front door, runs down the walkway then down the right side of the driveway to the first brick light, then under the driveway through a pipe to the second brick light, then up the left side of the driveway to the 7ft pole light on the left. The brick lights and front door lights I put in in 1994, then finally got around to installing the rest in 2008. About time, huh?

 

[salty87]

Re: Outdoor Lighting Pics.

looks great, nice n fancy. i esp like the outlets in the yard.

i should get a pic of the outdoor lighting the original owner of my house had installed....40' telephone pole in the middle of the front yard, light sensitive...no switch. lights up half the block.

i like yours better

 

[Mark42]

Re: Outdoor Lighting Pics.

Thanks Salty87,

That 40ft light pole probably wasn't too energy effecient either, I bet. LOL! And those outlets near the driveway come in handy for vacuming out the car after washing.

Back when I was a single guy in '95 I drew up a garden plan for the entire yard (not a tree in sight, the house was built on a hay field). Had some 2'x3' graph paper that worked out well to draw the yard to scale. Gave a copy to a landscape contractor, and he re-drew my plans on blue-print paper, changed a few plants that were "deer candy" and wanted $35,000 to do the job, including walkways and a blue stone patio in the back. I graciously declined his bid. Thinking I was getting ripped off, I got two more estimates, that came in about the same. It was then I realized that I had to do the work myself, even though I had one leg in a brace from an accident in '94.

Holy Moly!

I rented a trencher and dug the trench for the wires.

I hired a young start-up mason who poured the concrete slabs and laid the blue stone walk ways. I helped run lines and lay the forms in compensation for a lower price.

I rented a backhoe and dug the field for the patio myself, back filled with 18" of select fill, and hand laid the 1x2 to 2'x3' blue stones that were delivered. My future wife helped my carry those bigger stones. Some upwards to 200+ lbs for a 2'x3'x1-3/4" slab of stone.

Went to the contractors garden center and ordered all the shrubs you see in those pictures (they were in 1 to 5 gallon buckets back then) and they delivered to the house.

A new development went in about a mile away, and I got 18 yard dump trucks delivering real farm top soil for $86/load. Whoo Hooo!!!! Pays to ask the development manager what he is doing with that huge pile of dirt he scraped off the farm fields. LOL!

I got some of my muscle bound nephiews and friends for (back then) $10/hr to dig holes for shrubs, mound dirt into raised gardens and basically do a lot of back-breaking work. They worked hard.

In the end, it took all summer to finish, but I think I spend around $7,000, and a lot of it was for blue stone.

It pays to do things yourself.

Oh, and my future wife was my girl friend at the time. She didn't care too much what I did to the house at that time, because we were not even engaged.

All that changed after we were married...... LOL!

This house has been a canvas that I and my wife have worked very hard at. We pay for work we can not do, and do everything else ourselves.

 

[puddle jumper]

Re: Outdoor Lighting Pics.

Wow Mark you have a fantastic yard. My wife saw it and it looks like im digging more holes in the spring.

Salty we had a light like that that i installed at our old place. We called it the Star of David. If you looked from across town you could see it.