What's under your lip/in your nose right now? - Part 2

[rothenbj]

I invested a few hundred in lighting to brighten up some of my trouble areas. I bought three Mr Beams lamps with motion sensors that use 4 D cell batteries. I've already come up with additional locations, but for now, I want to see how these hold up. I bought 12 10,000mAh High Capacity High Rate NiMH Rechargeable Batteries and a Maha Powerex MH-C808M 8 Cell Multi-Charger for AA/AAA/C/Ds to charge them with.

I have a porch light but having eight steps up (plus an odd sized cement first step) that there was no light on. For awhile I had those LED rope lights but they wore out pretty fast. I'm hoping these do much better. I'm going to put one in my wood shed and the other on the back deck or my garage that sits along my drive because it really is dark in there when I go looking for stuff.

 

[hittman]

It's funny you mention lights. My wife was just complaining how she doesn't like the led lights the other night. I just recently bought a two pack of led bulbs to try. I put one in a lamp in the living room. When she finished, I told her the one in the lamp was one. She said she knew that but I don't think she did.

 

[rothenbj]

I love the LEDs but I also like bright. I think there are are others available today but I always look for daylight bright. I have dimmables in my living room ceiling fixtures. The ceiling is 10 foot so the first advantage is not having to change them once a year. The other is more daylight light than I get during the day due to all the tree cover.

I decided not to wait and ordered two more outside lamps. The ones I got were 300 lumens, these are 500. One is going in the garage along the lane and one on the back deck. I installed one in my wood shed which will make loading up wood this winter much easier.

 

[hittman]

I like the brightness of them too and honestly can't tell that much of a difference.

 

[rothenbj]

Are you buying the ones that look like incandescent bulbs from the big box stores? I haven't tried them yet.

I have some to put in my florescent fixtures but haven't converted the fixtures yet. The wiring has to be altered and I've been putting it off since the old bulbs are still functioning. Plus procrastination is my buddy.

 

[hittman]

Yes these are the first led bulbs I've bought and they look like regular incandescent bulbs. I was at Home Depot for something else and saw a two pack for 4.50.

 

[firechick]

We recently converted most of the house to LED. I like the warm white better.

 

[hittman]

I'll have to try some of the warm ones.

 

[firechick]

Ace Hardware has buy 2 get 1 free. Sale ends today. We got most of ours on sale at Lowes.

 

[rothenbj]

The one I put on the front deck is amazing. I may not fall and break something now by misstepping, plus everyone else that comes and goes from the house. I had a couple of close calls in the past that I managed to escape by athletic ability alone, but that's slowly deteriorating.

I haven't tried the warm whites. FC, do you know what price they were getting?

 

[hittman]

I saw some on sale yesterday at Lowes but they didn't say if they were warm lights or not. I was mowing and noticed one side of the yard was really wet. I found a pvc fitting going to my sprinkler system had cracked a little and was putting off a fine mist. It must have been leaking for some time to get the yard that wet. Twelve dollars and some pvc fittings and glue and I'm back in business.

 

[The Rebel]

You're still watering Hitt? I shut my system down a few weeks ago and flushed out the lines. Been getting in the thirties at night around here.

 

[hittman]

We've been having one week where it's cooler and the next back in the 70-80 range. It seems like we didn't get much rain this summer or fall even though it wasn't that hot. I probably haven't run the sprinklers in a week or so but it's back in the 70's this week so I was waiting to blow out the lines.

 

[firechick]

Ace was more expensive than Lowes and the selectio was smaller, but the free one would made it a wash.

 

[hittman]

Anyone still alive in here?

 

[KathyD26]

Hi Hitt, I am here I can only check in on you guys a few times a week as I've been super busy for the past 6 months.

 

[The Rebel]

Always alive Hitt, but damn busy lately. Between the kids extracurricular activities and trying to button up stuff before the snow flies, I've barely had time to sit down. I thought with the boys getting older that I'd have more free time and it turns out it's the exact opposite. Weeks are flying by with work/ practices and the weekends are a blur of games and work around the house. I did finally find some time to finish reading "The Martian" book. Good read if you haven't seen the movie. Lots of technical talk at times that kind of bogs down the book, but a good story none the less. I'll probably watch the flick when it comes out on disk, but I can't stand paying the cost of watching movies in a theater. Started looking for a new car as the Malibu is reaching the end of it's useful life. I've put some cash into it to keep it going, but with well over 200 thousand on it parts are wearing out faster than I can replace them. Hoping to puppy it through the winter and find something in the spring. It's been a good car for the past ten years so I'll be a bit sad to see it go.

 

[hittman]

Hi Kathy. Good to hear from you. This thread gets kinda stagnant sometimes so thought I'd see if anyone was listening.

Rebel, I get the busy thing. I worked concessions at the high school football game Friday right after work and then got up the next morning and loaded tools to go work at a coworker's house for about six hours. It was a paying job but I gave them a heavy discount compared to what I'd charge someone I didn't know. He wanted two ceiling fans mounted with remotes where there were light fixtures and then I had to go in the attic to run wire for a new installation light fixture and then chased down a problem with his doorbell. It was an all day affair. The insurance for my oldest daughter's car went up since she went to college and we had to make her the primary driver so I was able to cover the difference with what I made Saturday. With one in college and one in high school I've been considering a second job.

 

[mmsjs5]

Sounds like you'd do better if you ran a Saturday Handyman ad in the paper. That way you'd get to do what you may like to do, and I'm sure, make better money.

 

[The Rebel]

The hard part is giving up the only two days you get off. Sunday after I finished rounding up the leafs in the yard for what seemed like the 50th time this fall, my wife suggested we go into to town to get some groceries and have dinner. I flat out refused. I was just burned out and wanted so badly to just sit, watch some mindless show on TV, and veg. Luckily I married a smart woman and she understood. She packed up the boys and gave me a couple of hours of pure silence. God, I love that woman. Being a nurse, she works twelve hours shifts, three days a week. So she gets that down time a couple days a week while the boys are at school. She knew I needed some "alone" time to recharge. I could see doing some odd jobs on Saturday, but Sunday, the Lord said take a break and who am I to argue with the guy who gave us light?