A couple month ago, because I didn't have a 26 foot ladder, I came up with this hair-brained scheme to replace the floodlight outside my house, while inside the attic. Actually, people here were pretty kind to me.
Wasn't so hair-brained after all. It's up and working.
1) In the attic, I disconnected the romex from where it was attached to an on/off switch. Twisted the ends together and tied string to the end.2) From the attic , I removed the winged nut from a big molly bolt. Naively thinking that was the only thing holding the light to my wall.
3) But the electrician who installed the lightk must have known that in houses like mine, an end of group towhouse with a pitched roof, a 2z4 runs vertically up to the crest of the roof.3) I used a Wonderbar, a flat prybar, to rip the screw out of the 2x4. (It didn't rip through the siding becuase the electric box outside was like one big washer.
4) Lowered the fixture to the ground below, first by the romex and then by the string.5) Outside, realized I'd ripped a screw out and no way to replace it without a ladder. Used a long screw, a lockwasher, and a nut and a couple oblong washers to mount a screw facing the wall through the center hole. Also used a new nut to hold the molly-bolt screw in place on the electric box where it was.
6) Replaced the fixture with one that worked better.7) Back in the attic, pull up the fixture with the stringe, and pull the wire through the hole. The wire didn't want to come so I lowered the whole thing and bent the wire and two feet of romex so it would point in. Still wouldn't come and went outside to see that all my bending had straightened right out. Used needle nose to pull in the wire.
8) Pulled all the wire in and then used a long thin screwdriver to move the fixture around outside until the longer of the two screws entered the right hole. (The holes I found there were at least 3/4".)9) Put a big washer on the big screw and an oblong washer on the center screw, and nuts. Attached the wiring, and used it for a few days.
10) Lights not very bright, realized I'd forgotten to see if they were 150 watts or not (they turned out to be 75 watts!)11) Kept going on in the wind. This model has a thing that plugs in inside and beeps a few times when the light goes on. It will also turn a lamp on for 10 minutes. Cooper MS249R or W.
12) Had to lower the fixture again, replace the bulbs with 150 and set the sensitivity to Low. It still goes on in the wind, but maybe they all do and I just don't know about it.13) Pulled up and mounted everything again, this time tightly and with a bigger washer. All is good.
The fixture was only 2 feet above the floor so not worth lowering, to reach a ladder I can borrow, but had I done so, I also had a plan to caulk the holes in the siding from the inside. I was going to take a small piece of siding, both layers, drill holes of the same side and spacking, grease the inside edges of the holes, back the boards with a backer board, caulk the holes I had just drilled, smoothing the caulk off even with the "outside" surface, let it dry, then remove the two boards that match the house, place the backer board with the caulk cylinders against the inside wall, and glue in place.
The floodlight had to be replaced because after a short power failure, the light would stay on forever. They made better lights at the time the electrician installed it, but he wasn't working for me but for the HOA, so I think he palmed off old stock.
I was going to call the electrician this time and tell him what I wanted, but my friend told me the only way to get what I wanted was to do it myself. Maybe so. I'm happy.
Thanks for the encouragement before.