Pretty twinkling lights

The outside lighting on our new (to us) home is, well, sub-par, especially on the back porch. For whatever reason, whoever built the porch installed this massive oversized lamp in the rafters wired to an inside switch.

I mean, look at this monster! Not only did it take forever to turn on (it needed a “warm up” period of about one minute), but whenever we flipped it on, Don’s computer screen would suddenly go black.

We speculate this lamp was bought (cough) on sale or given free. Why else install such a monstrosity?

One of the projects Don wanted to accomplish was to get rid of the durn thing. But rather than replace it with a conventional porch light, he decided to install white Christmas-style lights.

He ordered some lights and used wire holder-clamps to screw them to the rafters.

He also installed a toggle so we could alternate between one string of lights (for a very dim ambiance) and three strings (for when a brighter light is needed). The strings of lights are wired to the inside switch.

The results are so pretty! Here’s one string of lights illuminated.

And here are all three.

It’s so much softer and less harsh than that nasty old monster light.

The other night, Don had a late meeting. What a pleasure it was to flip on the switch and make it easy for him to see his way from the dark driveway to the lit-up porch.