Deciding on the Correct Height for Exterior Lights

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was enjoyable and your turkey was cooked just right.  We dined out with my son and daughter in law at a Hungarian restaurant in Detroit.  B and I both ordered chicken paprikash with dumplings, my son ordered goulash with dumplings, and the Hungarian at the table ordered filet mignon, go figure. 

Goulash with Dumplings

Chicken Paprikash with Dumplings

But the real star of the dinner was dessert.  I ordered a milk chocolate and walnut torte.  It was very good and I thought I had made the perfect choice until I got a taste of B's dessert.  She ordered kremesh.  Sometimes referred to as kreme.  This dessert is made all over Europe but I guess some places add too much garnish and make it too sweet.  From what I have read, the French version has whipped cream on top and is drizzled with caramel.  In Hungary the kremesh is just the filling between puff pastry.  It is so good. You taste the cream which isn't overly sweet.  I wish I had a photo of it but I did find a photo online which is very close to what the restaurant served.  The only difference is that B's piece wasn't yellow and was just lightly off white.

Kremesh

The current exterior light on the deck is located above the door.  I wanted a light on each side of the door so when I purchased my other exterior lights I just bought two extra.  This means each side of the patio door will have a light.

Now has come the time to decide on the placement of these lights.  I started by checking the Internet to see what the 'Net' had to say about exterior wall hung lights.  Several sites said 60 inches up from the bottom of the door and between 6 and 11 inches away from the door casing.  Sounds good so I got out the tape measure and a piece of white chalk and measured up from the door sill and marked the 60 inch mark.  I stopped right their because that was just too low.

I called to R to hold the light at various heights until I found a spot that looked good.  I marked this location with chalk and then measured the 6 inch and 11 inch marks.  6 inches was too close to the door.  R suggested the mid point between the door and the window.  Normally I am all about things being centered and symmetrical but in this case I thought it was best if the lights were closer to the door because the lights are there to cast light around the door opening.

11 inches was perfect but that point landed right on a stud so we were able to move it 1 inch closer to the door for it to work.  But before I could say 'this is the location' I needed to check the other side and make sure there wasn't a stud problem.  All was good, so we moved on to cutting out the hole for the 4 inch octagon box.

The light may look like it is centered between the window and door but the new door will have 5 inch wide casing so the light is located closer to the door than the window.  I am so ready for that door to go buh bye.

Probably one of the worse things that I can ask R to do is hold something, while I decide the correct placement.  He just doesn't understand why I can't just say "right here" and move onto the next task.  It frustrates him to no end.

R cut out the opening and reattached the tar paper.  He then installed the box and we attached the light to the box just to make sure that it looked good.  Our hands were so cold that it was difficult to screw the little cap onto the threaded stud.  

I also screwed in a LED light bulb and right away didn't like how it looked.  It is so white that it stands out.  I'll wait and see how it looks after the electrical is attached and the shingles are installed and painted before I make up my mind.

Tomorrow we have a few errands to run before we can install the box on the other side of the door.  The other side should go faster now that we know the location.

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