Inviting Front Door

A few weeks age, my sister, Karen, sent me a picture of her front door, taken at night with the lights on, after she'd repainted the door.  My reaction was, "It looks very inviting."

So, this post is a response, now that I have the front-door lights installed and wired to the proper switches.  I think my front door is more "formal" looking, rather than "homey" looking, as my sister's is; but I still think it looks inviting.

I like big/bold architectural elements.  I used to have two really big, really cool looking glass and brass and porcelain lanterns on either side of the front door. But, one winter, water got into the porcelain parts of one of them and shattered the parts as it froze.  These lanterns (which Karen gave me) aren't nearly as large as the others were, but they'll do,  And, as they are cast aluminum and glass, I don't expect water will shatter them any time soon.

I've wired/switched this circuit with three switches. The "main" switch allows any part of the circuit (including a wall outlet in the corner of the foyer) to be "On" or "Off". The second switch can turn the side-lights "Off" separately. The third switch can turn the overhead light "Off" separately. And, with both sub-circuits "Off", only the outlet in the foyer would be powered.

Everything to the east/left of the front door is additions I've made to the house over the years. So, until a few days ago, the side-light to the left of the door was wired to the "main" switch -- that is, it was either on or off, regardless of the other two lights.  The junction-box to make the proper connection is above the foyer ceiling, in the "crawl-space" above the ceiling and blow the roof.  So, a few nights ago, I wormed my way across the ceiling joists to rewire that light's connection, so it works as I want it to.  That was a chore: hot, dusty, fiber-glass dusty; totally filthy.  But, I got it done, AND I didn't put my foot through the ceiling below me.

At one time, I had a motion sensor device wired to the "main" switch. It stopped working several years ago, and I assumed that the controller-unit in the attic had failed. Perhaps it had failed. Or perhaps the problem was that the damned raccoons who were getting into the attic had managed to disconnect the sensor-unit from the controller-unit.  How they got their hands into the wee gap between the junction-box and the unit is a mystery.  Yet, when I went into the attic to re-wire that left-side light, I found that the wires which HAD gone to the sensor unit -- which we had thrown away a few weeks ago -- were not connected to the controller. And, of course, without the sensor, the controller is useless.