I’ve been in covid-related limbo the last couple of months.
Jamie’s job hasn’t really been affected.
While I’m not in demand so much anymore.
Not a big deal because with all my new-found free time I have been catching up on the myriad of house projects that have slipped through the cracks over the past decade.
It’s good for me to keep busy.
Idle hands and all,
One of those overlooked projects is replacing the light over our garage.
Neither of us remembers what was on the back of the house originally, and we can’t really tell from this tiny, tiny little picture that I saved from the Trulia listing. (Notice the stylish pea-soup green garage)
I assume it’s one of those double-headed outdoor floodlight fixtures, probably with a motion detector, and 2 exposed lightbulbs.
Not very sexy, I know. But these were the “standard” on every single basic American house built from about 1945 until…… actually, I don’t think they’ve ever stopped being the “standard”.
I found this ever so affordable (somewhere in the $30 range) silver barn light on Amazon sometime after we moved in.
It’s small,
It’s sans the standard barn light gooseneck,
It’s oddly shallow,
It’s been… fine.
Utterly forgettable, … but fine.
With the addition of the sunset sensor, that little box over the top of it, it has served its purpose for just over 10 years. Until sometime in January when the sensor just stopped working.
I thought about painting it glossy orange, but why bother if I have to keep flipping a switch like a neanderthal every time I want to see what’s happening in the driveway at night?
I’m kinda ready for something new anyway.
I started the hunt on Amazon for a replacement (preferably one with a built-in sunset sensor – which is a surprisingly rare feature in a barn light.)
There were a lot of beauties to choose from, but I settled on this goosenecked girl right here.
In bright red.
THE COLOR OF A FIRE ENGINE!
16 inches is plenty big, and just happens to match the size of the black factory pendants already hanging inside the garage.
Pricey though. Costs as much as 9 of those black factory pendants.
But here’s the clincher. I had American Express rewards points transferred to an Amazon gift card and my final cost was only $7.24.
Seriously.
(Plus another 10 bucks for the sundown sensor – sold seperately)
It’s even more beautiful in person, heavy and well constructed, with a glossy powder-coated enamel finish. American-made even. Huge improvement over that last 2 light fixtures that hung in that space.
Since nothing is ever easy, I had to move the light mount up 5 inches on the wall above the garage door so it would be centered on the little wall section appropriately.
Tedious work, I know.
But it absolutely needed to be 5 inches higher.
I used a Dremel to cut a new round hole in the exterior and simply transferred the round mounting box to the new hole and the cut-out wood circle to the previous hole…
…and filled in with a little putty.
Since I’m already painting the wall I might as well paint the sundown sensor to match.
Another tedious detail.
That odd little black box…
- Why is it black?
- Who has a black house?
- Why would anyone ever need to see it?
…will definitely distract from the beauty of my new glossy-red lamp.
I taped around my newly-installed red lamp, and placed a little circle of blue painter’s tape over the sundown sensor eye. Then I coated everything that wasn’t a red barn light with paint to match the color of the house.
“Vanilla Cream” is what we call it because we honestly don’t know what it’s real name is, the house just came this color.
(Well, that garage didn’t come this color, the rest of the house did, but now it all matches)
Now, here’s the one detail about this kinda pricy barn light that just doesn’t make sense to me…
THE MOUNTING SCREWS ARE SILVER….?
Seriously?
Who produces a product like that?
Jamie had to remind me that not all of the world is designed by art directors and “regular folks” don’t care about details like this.
I’m sure silver screws on red laquer are just fine and dandy for “regular folks”… but there are anal-retentive detail-oriented people living in this house.
And we just can’t have that.
Remember that glossy enamel paint we used to use on model airplanes as kids?
They still make it.
(My dear friend George will remember road-trippin’ us to a hobby shop in Grapevine, Tx to buy it when we were kids because we were too young to buy it in our hometown.)
So I took another road-trip, this time to Michael’s in Cedar Hill, and returned with four little jars with four different shades of red to choose from.
In case you’re wondering…
“RED” matched the best.
Go figure.
Pretty, ain’t she?
Notice how the patched hole, silver mounting screws and black sundown sensor all fail to distract for her beauty……
You’re welcome.
“Detail Oriented”, he whispers to himself.
Here’s our driveway right after I installed the little silver light about 9 years ago…
And here’s that same view today, with our new red barn light in all her glory.
Way, More, Much better.
Am I right?
Looks even better at night….
OH, and as if moving the wall mount up 5 inches and painting the screw heads red wasn’t detail oriented enough….
Over the past 2 weeks I repainted the garage door – you can see how battered it looks in the top-most picture, power-washed the driveway, replaced the river rock border with pea gravel, added a few more razor grasses, replaced all the cap boards on the fence… and, why not, restained the entire fence.
Just to take a picture….
No worries,
I had the time.
THE CAVENDER DIARY 
Looks amazing! The tedious work paid off
Thanks Brad! I found my career by being that picky…. glad I can bring some of it home with me!
Cool!
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Thanks Laurie!!!
…and now all I can think about is where I could put this red beauty!
There has to be someplace. 🙂
Love it! 😊💕
Thanks Kim, it makes me smile too!
Wow it looks wonderful! Great work! Turned down time into way way up time! Wish I was your neighbor, would love to pick your brain. You two have done such a fantastic job over the years. And I am a Ralph Lauren fan! Keep postin”.
Thanks Peggy. I don’t know what we will do when the house is “finished”. HA!!! Speaking of neighbors….. I tiled my neighbor’s kitchen backsplash last weekend.
Looks fabulous! I used a Sharpie pen when faced with screws inside. Drives me crazy to see silver, too!
Love your light fixture, fence, Lights. Looks so nice!
Catherine
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True story, on my second date with Jamie I touched up all the scratched black picture frames in his apartment with a Sharpie while he was in the kitchen cooking. I always have one in my bag for just such emergencies…… and to get that perfect curl on the ends of my mustache.
I care about those details. I was thinking, when I saw the Testor’s bottle, “Dear Lord he didn’t go to Hobby Lobby!” I forgot Michael’s would have model paint. I love service station lamps. They are “dark sky” fixtures too, which means they don’t contribute to light pollution and they make it harder for aircraft to spot your home at night. And they don’t confuse newly hatched sea turtles. Which may be a plus.
You know how myself, and EVERY LGBTQ in the United States, feels about Hobby Lobby…. No thank you. I’ll just wait patiently for 40 minutes while the toddler at Michael’s finds the key to the paint cage. I’ve never heard of “Dark Sky” lamps, but that makes complete sense, especially in the early 40’s. We certainly don’t need the Germans dropping bombs on our driveway…. or anymore stray Loggerheads….
Everything looks great! I had a top mount black sink installed this week on my black and bronze countertops. The plumber put white caulk around it! It looked awful so he removed it and said I would have to find my on black caulk. Well, the plumbing company did find some far away then said it was too difficult and tricky for a plumber to put around the sink and I would have to have a very good painter to come do it. So I succumbed to their suggestion to use clear. So disappointed……!
No, No, No no no no no……that just won’t do. Why exactly is using black caulk “more difficult” than white? That smells of a straight man making design decisions to me… They are just the worst. Our glass guys installed chrome hardware on the shower door while I was at work. Jamie sent me a pic and immediately I saw that it wasn’t polished nickel like I discussed. (They had to wait on polished nickel to arrive and thought I wouldn’t mind if they just used whatever they had on hand. Hmmmmmm) We held off on paying them until it was corrected.
Beautiful. MUCH. MUCH. MOBETTA.
enjoyed the post very much. I giggled twice and then a LOL!!!
And don’t worry. I completely understand the color thing. My next car will be the perfect color to compliment our newly painted house. I never got over having a gold colored car that looked ghastly parked in the driveway.
Funny you should mention that…. I’ve always wanted an old red or turquoise pickup just to use for photo shoots. You know, with a wreath strapped to the grill…. or just parked in the driveway while I’m photographing my new red barn light. Someday, (sigh) And GOLD? hhmmm. That would have been a deal breaker for me.
Really wonderful! ALL OF IT! I do wonder if a bottle of Revlon lacquer nail polish in red would work the same in a pinch, but I bet you already know the answer to that
“Jungle Red”? by chance? I’ll bet it would. I could have just run to the CVS on the corner. Hmmm
Oh how I love your attention to detail! It all looks great!
Oh! And you know…not only is the Devil red…but also in the details!! And you’re certainly are a devil, you! Wonderful job! It comes together beautifully! As usual!
–Erik in NW Ohio
Wow, it all looks great! Your hard work paid off. The fence really caught my eye in the “after” pictures.
Good thinking, coming up with model paint for the screw heads. I had thought of automotive paint, but that’s probably more expensive.
Thanks Linda, I think the Fence still looks great…. it’s been almost 10 years. Although, truth be told, I have done a LOT of maintenance on it the past 2 months….. and I still need to stain the inside left. Probably this week. The weather has been beautiful, and Lord knows, I have the free time. OOOOHHHH, before the pandemic I reached out to an auto/body shop to powder-coat my metal outdoor chairs. Crayola orange, of course. I guess he didn’t need the business because he never emailed back with a price.