Exterior Illumination: Phase II

If there is one thing I have learned over the years it is that when it comes to exterior illumination you have to be flexible. Now I am not talking about my particular athleticism either.

I originally thought I would be writing about "Phase II: The lower level roof line" but I had to complete a blended phase II over the weekend. Because I purchased all new lights this year, that meant I also had to re-clip all of the lights where in the past I could simply pull out the lights from the previous year and get at it. I realized in a hurry that I was going to run out of clips and still had lights that I could hang. Solution: put up as many of the lower roof lights as possible and then shift gears to hang garage door lights.

You will see from my photo that I made it to the peak of the garage before running out of clips. I then started to hang the garage door lights with my new toy the "Light Tacker" (see below). I have to black out some lights with electrician's tape that run along the ground to the 3rd garage stall but will do that in phase III on Wednesday of this week.

I thought I would briefly talk about equipment as a good set of tools is key to a successful light display. Last year I purchased a high quality Werner extension ladder which is probably the single most important tool in my arsenal.

I'm a little higher than you may think!

I also made a small purchase this year to add to the excitement! The "Light Tacker 3000" (okay it is really called the "Light Tacker" but I thought I would add "3000" to spice it up a bit) has been a very nice addition so far. This is not your ordinary staple gun. The little white pieces shown directly below the staple gun are placed between the light strand and the staple to prevent a staple from entering the strand directly and thus shorting out the lights. Pretty slick!



I also use the universal light clips shown above to attach the lights to both the shingles and the gutters. It is a great all purpose clip that works on several different surfaces as well as with several different types of lights.

I should be done with phase III of my display by Wednesday night and will post another blog entry early next week. Phase IV involves a fresh cut Christmas tree which won't be available until December 6th.

As an added bonus, click the title above to view a classic clip of Clark W. Griswold's light display in one of my favorite movies "Christmas Vacation".

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!