We live on a lake and are close to several resort areas. The road that is closest to our home is considered a scenic drive. Because of the scenic drive, the lake and the resorts we have many walkers, bikers and people on rollerblades that use the road. Because this is also a rural area there are no street lights in the area. We have a security light in the back of our property but the area between the garage and the house was always very dark. In the winter months when the day light hours are so short it was difficult walking from the garage to the house without a light. We had a light on the outside of the garage; however we did not want to have it on all the time. We decided to replace the existing light with a light that ran on a motion detector. This way we would have a lighted pathway, but the light could be set to turn off after a predetermined length of time.

We went to a local home improvement store to look at the motion detector selections. They had several security lights that had a motion detector senor in them. The lights could be programmed to stay on for eight minutes, twelve minutes or fifteen minutes. We bought one of the lights that had two bulbs on it and brought it home. My husband was getting ready for a hunting trip so he was rushed for time. I decided that I would try hanging the motion detector myself. I read the instructions and they seemed very thorough and simple. I began by removing the old light fixture from the outside of the garage, next to the door. The bases of the two light fixtures were the same so I did not have to drill new holes. I screwed the new base into the side of the garage and then placed the two light bulbs in. The tricky part was finding the right angle to place the motion detector so that it would sense that someone was there. It came with different sensitivity levels. We have several wild rabbits that run about the yard at night and we did not want them setting off the motion detector every time they hopped by. Once I had that angle right I had to adjust the dial for length of time to remain on. I thought fifteen minutes seemed too long. I thought I would start with the shortest cycle of eight minutes. I felt we could always change it.

My husband was coming down the path from the house to the garage just as I was putting away the tools and packaging. He could not believe that I had managed to hook up the motion detector by myself.