Even More Lighting

Out in front of the house is a small lamp post. It was wired together with the porch light, so a single switch turned on/off both lights. The problem was that there was no good way to have the lights controlled with a dusk/dawn sensor; the porch light would have to always be on or we had to turn them on/off manually. At one point, I replaced the light switch with a timer switch — and it worked for a while, but it was always a pain to adjust with the seasons or if we were travelling.

At some other point, an electircal problem cropped up and the lamp post stopped working. I did some digging around, but not much actual digging. My guess is the fault was somewhere underground between the house and post and it wasn't worth trying to suss out. We onsidered trying to just remove the post, but then I found a solar-powered LED replacement that fit the post (this Hampton Bay light looks similar to what we got). It worked well for a while (I don't recall exactly when, but it was prior to when the other exterior lights were installed/replaced in 2014. Over time, though, charging grew slower and the light turned off earlier even after sunny days (it is in partial shade, so charging would sometimes be an issue).

The solar panels were on the flat top of the lamp and after years of exposure to the weather, they were pretty dirty. One day when Celeste was pressure washing the front steps, I had the bright idea to try and clean the solar panels with the pressure washer. That didn't fix the problem, but it did accelerate the need for a replacement. The thing pretty much stopped working.

This afternoon, the replacement arrived — a Lutec London/LED. Installtion was pretty easy (despite the large number of spiders and ants that had made a home in the old lamp) and it surprisingly turned on at dusk despite only have a few hours of late=afternoon sun. The solar panels on this one are arrayed around the top at an angle, so hopefully they will be more effective than the older one. If nothing else, they are a lot cleaner, which is sure to help too.

Repositioning the Swing

For her birthday Evelin got some new chairs for the deck. The Adirondack chairs we've had for years or definitely showing their age, and generally feeling unstable. Unfortunately after the chairs arrived, we quickly found out that their cushions were not weather-resistant. The tags actually say to keep them out of the sun, rain, and other weather ... despite being outdoor furniture. 😠

I tried some weatherproofing spray on them, which helped, but we still thought it best to move the new chairs to a more sheltered location — the front porch. However, this meant relocating the swing that's been here since before we bought the house. It's acutally a pretty comfortable swing, despite having needed a few repairs and bracing over the years. At first we figured we'd just stash it somewhere, but looking at the deck the from the ground I realized (once a shrub was moved) it might work under the deck ... and it does. It's not a bad location at all. I found a decent suspension kit that worked for the location (the springs work pretty well) and it hangs at a nice height. It's surprisingly pleasant.

Kind of visible behind it is the small Trunnell resin lean-to shed that I set up last November for the lawnmower. It's only about 4 feet × 2 feet and doesn't fit much of anything besides the mower, but it works. I'd originaly been looking at ways to close some or all of the underdeck area as a shed. That would have given us more storage space (freeing up room in the basement), but it would have made the swing solution unworkable, so I think the little shed/box was (again) the right solution for us.

Warranties

It's been nearly seven years since the kitchen was remodled. Actually, it's six years, seven months, two weeks, and a day since since the appliances were delivered, which is important because the warranty on the magnetron on the Sharp microwave we installed was seven years. About two weeks ago, the microwave started making a big noise when running and it stopped heating things. After some back and forth with Sharp and a visit from their recommended service technician, a fully covered replacement unit was delivered today. It's the same unit, although the model number (R-1214-TY) is slightly different. It's a wall-mounted, under-cabinet model and thankfully the same mounting plate and rig worked so it was just a matter of unplugging, taking out a few screws and then swapping out the unit before putting the screws back in. The kids are glad to be able to quickly make oatmeal for breakfast again ... and (just as they did seven years ago) they're happy to have a big box to play in.