Let There Be Light ... Or Not!!

Your lights came in.  That's what my landscaper said when he called yesterday morning, confirming he would be at my house by 8:30 to begin installation.  I made a mad dash to the bedroom to become halfway presentable.  I didn't want to scare the life out of him!!

These are the exact same lights as my old ones, but these are all LEDs and VERY bright.  There will be eight path lights like this one and seven up-lights to light up the entire front of the house.  If anyone tries to break in now, I'll have plenty of light to see them when I shoot!!

First, they raked up all the rubber mulch in the flower beds ... or what was left of it.  It's pretty amazing how that stuff just disappears into thin air.  Next they installed all the lights, then began to wire them. Unlike regular electricity, this entire system is 12 volt, so there's no risk of shock.  My electricity bill should actually be less than currently, as these 15 lights use less than 40 watts, while my four old lights used 60.  

The problem with electricity however, is getting it to work.  Isn't that always the case?  Once hooked up, there was no light at all.  He completely rebuilt the two splices shown here, reconnected everything, and you guessed it ..... still no lights.  After trouble shooting for an hour, we finally determined the main switch box had a bad connection.  Good news however, it's got a lifetime warranty.  It should for what that thing cost!!  So the company will replace it for free.

That means no pretty lights to show you today!!  There will also be another bill for the time it takes to  get the new box and install it!  RATS!!  The lights do look really nice in the flower beds, and they installed them far enough back that the crazy weedeater guy shouldn't be getting close enough to cut the wires!

While the landscaper was working out front, I finished up this lap quilt, making number six in the pile to be quilted.  My quilting lady is going to have a heart attack!  Probably me too when I get the bill!

I'm off to become presentable again for the final installation of the control box.  Keep your fingers crossed this thing works!!  Then I'm heading down to Home Depot for another light switch timer.  I'm not really sure I want to tackle this, even though I did watch Nick install the other one, but a timer on my back patio lights would be awesome when I'm gone!!  If you don't see a blog one morning, call 911 ...  I probably touched the wrong wire!!