The First Step Isn't Always The Hardest.

Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I have a tendency to approach a new project with the willingness to suspend reason and believe that all will go well.  I also forget that I am (a) no longer a lithe and limber 25 year old, (b) paint and wallpaper were put on this earth to torment DIY humans, and (c) doing one project spawns the birth of a minimum of 20 other projects.

My step-mother had lived in this house for the last 40-some years and made an abrupt decision to move to a retirement apartment.  No clearing out had been done, so early projects were difficult or delayed while the house was used as an off-site storage facility.  I began by doing some small changes outside.  First painting the trim on the shutters and the doors, and next by changing the outside lighting.

The side door is used most often because of it's relation to the drive, and the light there drove me mad!
For reasons I don't understand, the light was actually put on upside down.  Not only did it look strange and give no useful light on the entry, it was a horror show to change the bulb as one had to get a ladder, and open the fixture from the top and then reach down inside to switch bulbs.

I found a lantern-style light at Lowes  which I loved.  Easy access to change the bulb, a pine-cone motif which I found appropriate for North Carolina and, ta-daaah, it actually lights the house number and the door!  Win-win.  I put the same fixture at the front door and a slightly smaller version at the side entrance to the guest room.