If You Do, We’ve Got The Cure!

We’re Custom Electrical Services, experts and experienced at “finishing up” those do-it-yourself or handyman projects that didn’t quite turn out the way you’d hoped.

Don’t get me wrong.  I understand the motivation for wanting to do it yourself or have a handyman friend hang a ceiling fan, move a chandelier or add an outlet.  You were probably trying to save money and avoid the aggravation of finding a reputable electrician who’ll show up on time, do the job on the first trip and do if for the price quoted!

But now your stuck.  The fan is wobbling.  The outlet doesn’t work.  The chandelier project is half done or maybe never got started because you didn’t have the right tools or parts.

Have no fear!

Call 515-669-3418.  My technicians are trained professionals experienced at “stepping in” and finish up electrical projects, large and small, to your complete satisfaction.  And you’ll be relieved to know:

So, don’t despair!  The cure for your projects hangover is one call away.

Categories: Residential« Ceiling Fan Winner!  |  Attention Homeowners: Do you know… »

It’s incredible the way lighting can change outdoor spaces. As is the case with indoor spaces, spending comparatively little on lighting can produce dramatic results. A DIY outdoor lighting project might be just the thing to make you fall in love with your home all over again. But before you begin an outdoor lighting project, it’s important to think about your options. Here are 10 tips for 10 approaches to outdoor lighting.

1. Using Outdoor String Lights

Outdoor string lights are just great. But there are so many different kinds! Some have bare bulbs; some have lanterns. Some are LED; some incandescent. Some are white; some are colored. Make sure you research your options and choose the ones that are right for YOU!

2. Taking DIY Outdoor Lighting to the Next Level

Sure, you can install a standard low voltage lighting fixture and be justified when you say you Did It Yourself, but have you ever considered making your own DIY outdoor lighting fixtures? Mason jars seem to be the ingredient of choice when constructing your own outdoor lights. The internet is full of instructions for making DIY outdoor lighting fixtures, so do your homework and find the perfect project to make your outdoor area more luminous.

3 . Making it Modern

Let’s get weird! Isn’t that what modern outdoor lighting seems to say? I guess it depends on whom you ask. Modern outdoor lighting usually consists of interesting light fixtures with unusual, playful designs, and they can really make your outdoor vibe more interesting and thought-provoking.

4. Showing Off Textures

Sometimes you start with a particular light source in mind. These days, that light source is often LED. If you’re sure you want to use outdoor LED lights, you have a wide variety of outdoor LED light fixture types, from LED rope to LED tape to LED path lights, step lights, puck lights, recessed lights, and string lights. LED outdoor lights are highly efficient and look great. And some, like the one above, run on solar power! That means free!

8. Decking Out the Deck

If you are focused specifically on outdoor deck lighting, make sure you think about caution. Outdoor deck lighting should entail step lights if there are steps and should include lights around the perimeter of the deck. LED tape or rope, colored or white, are often great for running on the underside of deck railings.

9. Using Timers

If you’re like me, you have a favorable reaction to yachts, perhaps without ever having stepped foot on one. I have absolutely no idea how I will one day acquire a yacht. All I know is that yachts and I are destined to be together some way, somehow. This amorous examination of yacht lighting exists, yes, because there are interesting things to note about yacht lighting design, but, if I’m totally honest, we’re in the dog days of summer; I’m landlocked; and I want to stare at yachts. Do you want to stare at yachts, too? Let’s stare at yachts in all their luminous glory.

1. In A Word, Yes. 

I am sucker for underwater lights. In pools, in little water features and ponds, they just make me smile. But beaming into a foreign sea from the hull of a yacht? I am slain (in a good way). Of course, that’s not the only amazing thing about the yacht lighting situation above. While the lights are illuminating the sea on either side of our vessel, whaddaya say we project the sea life around us onto this huge sail? OK, great!

I mean, seriously?! Are you seriously watching the sea life around your yacht as it’s projected onto a giant screen in the middle of the beautiful sea with starlight and moonlight above you and light beams shooting out of either side of your vessel? Yes? Well OK, then. I guess I would, too, if I were you.

2. Outdoor Recessed Lights

What an amazing night time mood these recessed lights lend this yacht. I love the way the fixtures form scallops of light along the side of the cabin, especially because the reflective surface of the yacht amplifies the light levels. Very nice via Charter World

And it also says, Come hither thou and hangeth out on me. Basically, these lighting designers have gotten it right. What looks better against the soft night sky than lights with a via Charter World

Those recessed light fixtures with single and multiple lamps are a great choice for this yacht living room/control center/spaceship dashboard. The top level is evenly lit, and the lower level, with its crisp light, invites the eye and the whole body, actually. Take me to Greenland, Captain! If you need me, I will be luxuriating.

7. Cove Lighting!