I have traditionally called my installation “build”, but since I have been building props; arches, north poles, stockings, RGB Santa and install structures for the last couple of months I needed a new word. My Install usually proceeds a couple of tasks I need to do to get ready. These are prune my trees, to maximize their light holding capacity and turn around my garage to put the car away and get out the lights. Canadian Thanksgiving is when I traditionally do these and this year was no exception, the difference was I also began my install this weekend too.
Saturday I got the garage cleaned out, on Sunday I had planned to prune the trees but I had to change my plans as there was snow forecast for Monday morning.
The garage before 
Everything out 
Cleaned up 
Car Stored 
Lights back in and accessible 
Tree Shaping 
Tree Shaping
First Lights to go up 
Testing RGBs(R) 
Testing RGBs(G) 
Testing RGBs(B) 
Heading up 
First light installed 
Upper Lights installed
I always start with the upper roof as that can be a bit sketchy if it is wet or icy. I cannot reach it by ladder so I try to get this wrapped up as soon as possible. The first piece to install are the icicle lights as these require laying on the edge of the roof hanging over the gutters to mount them. Next is the right side upper light string as this goes up and over a pitch that I can only reach in a similar way to the icicles. Finally the upper roof pitch, this is the last piece on the upper roof as they can easily be tripped over if not paying attention when moving around up there. Once this is complete then I can finish the right side from a ladder or the garage roof. Then the upper left side which can all be reached from a ladder and the garage roof. That was the totality on my installation for the first weekend. But this got all the 2nd story lights installed which I cannot get to if there is any ice or snow on the roof.
RGB (R) test 
RGB (G) test 
RGB (B) test 
RGB’s and Icicles (week 1 install)
Getting these lights up was a bit sketchy even though it hadn’t snowed yet as we were getting 50KPH wind gusts. I also added some additional structure to my curtain lights as the wind had played havoc with them blowing away the baseboard I had attached to secure the bottoms .
The wind was messing with my curtain lights 
Extra stability added
Next weekends install involves items I need to access from the garage roof, these can also be sketchy if it snows or if its frosty overnight, but they get enough direct sun it usually thaws unless it is a big snowfall. These lights include the kids rooms windows, the new stockings I am adding under the kids room windows and the lights on the garage roof pitch. Once all of these are installed with the controllers for the RGBs and the power cords for the LEDS everything else is accessible by ladder and cannot be delayed by inclement weather.
Good thing I moved up the install a day as it snowed on Monday which kept me off the roof
I’m likely going to need to accelerate this weekends build schedule as it is forecast to snow. With snow and cool weather forecast for the next couple of weeks I could fall behind schedule, so I’ll likely do a little each night after work before it gets dark.
Overall good progress on this years schedule
| This week | To date | |||||||
| Due | Complete | % | Due | Complete | % | Run Time | ||
| Sequences | 3 | 3 | 100% | 38 | 46 | 121% | 2:48:10 | |
| Build | 14 | 13 | 93% | 14 | 15 | 107% |
This upcoming week Install:
| Kids Window 1 -RGB |
| Garage Pitch – RGB |
| Kids Window 2 -RGB |
| Living Room Pitch – RGB |
| Kids Window Stockings- RGB |
Chasin' Rudolph 