We took a break from furnace replacement projects to address an annoying outdoor issue. We have these incredibly lovely old street lights that reside on the edges of the courtyard. Right after we moved in, I managed to make contact with the doctor who built the house in 1967 and he came up for a short visit. One of the many nuggets of information he shared is that the lights were originally installed in Pasadena along one of the roads where the Tournament of Roses parade floats congregate, and apparently when they were being replaced, the doc got a deal on them. He had at least five or six brought here and installed around the center courtyard. (We suspect there was another lamp by the exterior fire hydrant at one time.) They were originally gas lamps–the tops actually flip up and over, and sometime in their very old lives they were wired for electricity. We’re not sure if this was done while they were still in Southern California or when they were installed here.
The annoying issue is that they originally had glass panels to allow the light to shine through, which the previous owners replaced with plastic, and said plastic was not UV resistant. As a result, the three lights nearest the house (which have different lanterns than the two between the courtyard and driveway) had gaping holes where some of the panels had broken apart, so water could easily get in during the rainy seasons, and water plus live wires is not always a great thing.
So first step: get rid of the plastic. We decided we’d give proper glass a go, so I called a couple glass shops, took measurements and grabbed a couple of the spare plastic inserts the previous owners left in the garage. A week later the glass was cut, and a few weeks after that we rented a lift from United Rentals and got to work on this and a couple other “high up” projects.
Of course there was a gotcha. When it came time to install the new glass panels, we discovered that the blanks were all wrong. We should have been a bit more diligent in measuring and not relied on something left behind by the POs. A quick trip to Home Despot solved the issue though, as we picked up a tile saw and blades suitable for glass. Then it was a matter of me marking the glass and Agent Smith cutting small slices off the ends.
Then it was back up into the air to fit everything back together.
The end result was worth it, as three of the five lights were now all glassed in, but about six months later, we suddenly had more work to do.