We should start with the carnage. And the good news: we sold all six lampposts! The best part about this project was that my mom and I did it alone! Second best was that we passed every, single one of them on to people who were looking to salvage or fix up and repurpose these!
Everyone: meet my mom, Jane. A superhero who doesn’t need to wear a cape, but has. Literally. Once, she flew the red-eye from Seattle to JFK, only to land, hop on the E train at 7 am into Manhattan, and hit the ground running, helping us move out of one apartment and into our new duplex. And she wore her red cape. Everyone, say “Hi, Jane!”
I’m pretty sure this lamppost extraction was not on my mom’s to-do list, or even her radar to be honest, when she booked this particular trip to Texas. But she did know we were in the process of ripping out old bushes, cutting down dead trees and preparing for a backyard redesign overhaul – so I’m pretty sure when I brought my plan to her she wasn’t COMPLETELY surprised. But that’s the thing about moms in superhero capes (the red ones or the maternal, metaphorical ones) they rise to the occasion, in the way only-a-mother-can-love fashion. Needless to say, we got to work.
These were the lampposts dotted along our back fenceline. They were very nice, but in various stages of disarray. With the recent planting of our 15 arborvitae trees, we were also hoping to do more modern landscape up-lighting. But they all worked so my mom suggested we list them on Facebook Marketplace, because “you never know” and we had a huge response! We ended up selling all six.
We I started on this one first, because the cement had been cracked and the lamppost wiggled a little bit, so we figured if we could get a shovel up under the cement chunks, we could then likely leverage the cement up and out of the dirt a little more, freeing the base of the lamppost.
The “first” crack at a project with multiples isn’t ever the easiest. We had no idea how the lamppost was secured within the cement, or how much slack we’d have with the electrical wiring that was running from the top of the lamppost, down the pole, and into the power line in the ground. With a ton of hoisting, shimmying, and quick clipping of wires by my mom, we were able to raise the lamppost high enough to clear the top of a 4’ metal stake that supported the lamppost internally. We only had one panel of glass fall out, grazing my left ear, before shattering on our flagstone pavers!
Of course, no two lampposts were installed the same way. Some pretty easy and straightforward. One real bugger but we got it eventually! Here’s the first one with that piece of glass waiting to fall out at any second!
Now that we’ve gotten these out of the way, I’m really looking forward to wiring in some slick new, modern uplighting, which we’re hoping to position in front of each tree. To say I couldn’t have tackled this project without my mom, is a complete understatement. I also did not anticipate the amount of giggling (to the point of a ridiculous ab workout) that would ensue, doing something as difficult as removing all these old lampposts. But, I shouldn’t be surprised. Mom’s got an amazing sense of humor. Didn’t quit on me when I almost sliced off my ear with falling glass, and worked quickly when it was time to snip wires – while I held a very heavy, old lamppost in the air, over both our heads.
Stay tuned for the next step in bringing our backyard visions to life! And for more Mom content!
