X-mas 2011

[MartyFunkhouser]

Arkham City for $28. Looks like I will be getting that game earlier than I thought.

[hostile]

I have a buddy that works for Qwest he usually stops by on a "service call" and helps me put hte lights up with his truck.

That is the way to do christmas lights.

[TripletDaddy]

Do they also come back to take them down? If they included wrapping Christmas presents for the kiddds, you might want to consider it...

The way they explained it, the price includes installation and removal. You can have the lights up as early as Nov 1 and as late as Jan 31. The price also includes the purchase of the lights, extension cords, timers, etc. They store everything for you from year to year. The first year is the most expensive year because subsequently, you are not purchasing the equipment again. They also maintain and fix the lights if anything burns out or goes wrong.

The quote does not include the wrapping of X-mas presents. However, based on the quote, I'm not convinced that there would be any X-mas presents to wrap.

[myboynoah]

Going to Australia.

[creekster]

The way they explained it, the price includes installation and removal. You can have the lights up as early as Nov 1 and as late as Jan 31. The price also includes the purchase of the lights, extension cords, timers, etc. They store everything for you from year to year. The first year is the most expensive year because subsequently, you are not purchasing the equipment again. They also maintain and fix the lights if anything burns out or goes wrong.

The quote does not include the wrapping of X-mas presents. However, based on the quote, I'm not convinced that there would be any X-mas presents to wrap.

That now looks like a much better deal than at first. How mcuh lighting does this buy?

[PaloAltoCougar]

That now looks like a much better deal than at first. How mcuh lighting does this buy?

I got a quote for our house a couple of years ago: $1,200. Humbug! I've been putting up lights for many years with the aid of a 28' extension ladder (oh, and filsdepac's mountain goat skills). I figure the deductible on skull fracture surgery is less than $1,200.

[Commando]

I'll probably treat myself to the new Zelda game and consequently a reason to play the Wii again for the first time in about a year.

I am also, through a series of very fortuitous circumstances, going to be treating myself to that 1950's Martin acoustic guitar I referenced awhile ago in the guitar lessons thread. i don't think I need anything else now.

[creekster]

I got a quote for our house a couple of years ago: $1,200. Humbug! I've been putting up lights for many years with the aid of a 28' extension ladder (oh, and filsdepac's mountain goat skills). I figure the deductible on skull fracture surgery is less than $1,200.

I relied on my oldest for this purpose but once he left on a mission and now is at school, I am not getting that sort of help naymore (my youngest is not as adept at scampering on rooftops). But for $1200 I think I will just decide to spread a little more neighborhood humbug and call it good.

[Art Vandelay]

Ha. I just read this thread.

Tomorrow I will be posting a picture from my roof, entitled, "Why I'm stupider braver than DDD" or alternatively titled, "stuff my wife makes me do, on my day off"

[LA Ute]

I got a quote for our house a couple of years ago: $1,200. Humbug! I've been putting up lights for many years with the aid of a 28' extension ladder (oh, and filsdepac's mountain goat skills). I figure the deductible on skull fracture surgery is less than $1,200.

I did ours for many years, the day after Thanksgiving. It always took the entire day, and often part of the next, because I'm a perfectionist about the lights and we put up lots of them. We have an extension ladder that I bought solely for that purpose. The kids always helped. 3 years ago my wife got tired of losing me for those two days and asked our guy who's done handyman stuff for us for years to put them up. (She knew how I did it.) So I came home from work one day and there they were. I still spent a couple of hours adjusting them, but I haven't put them up myself since. Hostile's post makes me feel justified in my decision. I did risk my neck a few times.

[RC Vikings]

We have these big redwoods in our front yard and i am thinking nof renting a boom lift to put lights on them. My wife says no but my son is very persuasive

Do it. Their is a point where Christmas lights go from being over the top to being cool and lights high up on a redwood would fit under the cool banner.

[Viking]

This reminds me of 1985. My mom made my dad get up on the roof and outline all of the tiers of the roof with lights. Those lights didn't come down until 1991.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I let my wife and kids talk me into stringing lights on the house this year. I will play on their guilt endlessly when I fall from a ladder and end up in surgery as several of my neighbors have done over the past couple of years.

Where do you get good outdoor lights that line up straight without all pointing in different directions? Yes, I'm an engineer.

They also need to be green and white.

I am a Scrooge but my Christmas lights kick butt. You need to get C-5 lights and lots of good quality clips. And the most important thing is you need to engineer them to your house. Get some electrical pliers, wire nuts, black tape, etc. and start at one end of your roofline and clip and splice your strings so that they are perfectly matched to your roofline. Each year from then on you just put them up. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THE SMALL BULBS. Waste of time. Get yourself a bag C-5 bulbs to use as spares.

[Surfah]

When me and Gidget were first married I helped a friend who had a Christmas light hanging business. We did 3 homes. Each was at least $500. There were three of us hanging lights. It was cold. And not fun at all. Two of the homes had extremely steep pitches and awkward roofs. All we had were extension ladders. I almost died more than once. One home belonged to a single mom in a McMansion. My buddy had set up the appointment and agreement over the phone. She was a repeat customer from the previous year. When we got there to hang the lights she wasn't home but we started anyway. She showed up about the time we finished and went off on us. She told us she didn't want the lights anymore because she had just bought her 12 year old son a $1500 gaming laptop and couldn't afford to pay us. She was hysterical over it and went into the house and didn't come out for awhile. I was ready to pull the lights down off the house and step on every bulb in her yard. She finally came out and gave this sob story about all of her debts (she pulled up in an Audi SUV and the garage contained a BMW). So she negotiated the price down about half what was originally agreed upon but we would not be returning to take down the lights. She called us some names then said she was going to take a long, hot bath and marched into her home and slammed the door. Another home took us about 8 hours. We finished about 10pm at night. In the end I decided I'd never do it again even though it afforded us a minor Christmas.

[TripletDaddy]

LOTS of x-mas light bragging going on in this thread, especially from our engineers. Pics or hit the highway. And those lights better be straight!