Edmonton Lighting Contractor Answers How to Avoid Higher Prices for Gemstone Lights
Hi there, welcome back to Natural Light Edmonton’s YouTube channel. My name is Trevor and I’m here with Andrew, and Andrew is the owner of Natural Light, and he is a certified Gemstone installer in the Edmonton area. And today we’re just going to be talking about, you know, how the season wrapped up. We’re just ending the Christmas season—how busy were you during December?
Busy—to the point where people could notice it on my face: busy. So, yeah, I was doing all I could to get as many people and customers—get their lights up before Christmas. Before, yeah. So literally working right up to the last moment, and late, late nights.
So, yeah, so he’s installing the lights, doing quotes, getting all the stuff done, and really he’s just a one-man show.
Did you have any help at all?
Not this year. No—not today. So maybe—maybe this coming year we’ll try and add some—add a crew to the—yeah, to the business. So as a crew we have more people that can go out there and install some—little light, more responsibility that you’ll have coming up next year. But that’s okay—we don’t mind doing that.
Create Fun Projects with Gemstone Lights
What are some fun things? Were there any, like, fun projects that you worked on, or were you just finished off and it was like, “Man, that was such a cool job, I like how that turned out”?
Yeah, a number of jobs. I just—I really love, actually—as odd as it seems—some of the harder jobs to do where I have to actually do some odd kind of climbing on weird roofs and high pitches and ladders and odd places. I actually enjoy it, as long as it’s super safe. I still might not seem safe to other people, but I actually—there’s a sense of a real accomplishment putting lights in spots that people were pretty impressed that I managed to get to.
So, one place in particular I actually had to buy a very specific set of ladders—I think I had three different ladder sets all kind of connected to get to this peak of a—a cabin out in Alberta Beach. And so that felt pretty good to get that cabin—that nice log cabin with a metal roof and some pretty cool-looking lights on it. Yeah, that was a pretty sweet job—quite enjoyed that.
Awesome. I noticed in our neighborhood there’s different types of lights like other people have. I’m not sure if they’re Gemstone, if they’re some other brand, but you know, the decorative, you know, trim lighting that that you install, and some look like they’re put closer to the house so it almost looked like there’s—there’s the lights are scallop on the side of the house. Is that a technique that people use, or is that just a poor install?
Superior Electrical Installation from Natural Light
Or, I’d hate to call it a poor install because at the end of the day people can essentially do what they want with their lights. So that would typically be done by a homeowner from what my experience with Gemstone. They’ve—our standard is to put the lights on the outside of the soffit, kind of like the outer—the outer edge where the soffit meets the fascia. And that just provides more of an individualistic—an individual kind of bulb and, like, really accents the trim more as opposed to, like, lighting up the siding of the house, right? The goal isn’t really to light up the siding in particular as much as accent the trims and, you know, curves and peaks and, yeah, the, the, the, stuff like that.
So, and then I also find, yeah, like you mentioned, when you do that—when you put the bulbs closer to the house, yeah, you get the kind of, like, pot-light look on the side of the house which, I mean, I guess, again, each to his own—some people like that—but I think generally the effect doesn’t really, give—yeah. I think—if you like that, it’s fine, but I think typically you get more out of it being closer to the edge of the soffit—more, like I said, more accent to the actual trim lines and, you know, peaks and valleys of the home. So, yeah, that would be why we would—I would say mostly why we do it. It’s just that, I think, it does give a general—better appeal to those, right? Yeah. What are we trying to access?
Yeah, yeah, for sure. That makes sense to me. The only reason I did it was because there were two houses that did it side by side and I’m like, “Those look different for some reason, it almost looks like they had installed lights like this, look like that on the house, like scallops.” Yeah, I was like, “That’s different.” Then I was looking at it going on, “All they did was the trim is closer to the house so it looks like there’s some kind of a, a pattern that they’ve put onto the house because of it.” Yeah, it wasn’t that at all. It just looked like that, and I thought, I don’t know if that was intentional.
Yeah. And I think, like I said, I think often in my experience mostly it is an individual homeowner, and maybe they don’t understand what that’s actually going to look like versus having it further out. It probably seems almost more natural to put it up underneath, up against the house as opposed to away.
Avoid Hanging Christmas Lights on your Fascia
And then even just for mounting purposes, depending on how it’s mounted, I think that’s also a part of it too. If it’s, like, if they don’t have the, like we have a track that sits inside—it’s called a hat track—it sits like in the overhang of the fascia and then screws to the soffit. If you don’t have that then you might be limited to how you’re mounting, and then it might seem odd to mount it right to the front. Maybe it’s more noticeable if it’s not in the track: you start to see each kind of bulb or whatever it is sticking out. Whereas the whole point of our track is it really hides it when it’s not on, right? So, yeah, I could see that being part of the way people may mount it closer to the house too.
Okay, yeah, all right, well fair enough. So when it comes to, getting your stuff this time of year was the busiest time. So November, December was crazy. Now we’re coming into January and the cold weather is starting. Right now, yeah, like we’re starting into –20—supposed to be getting down to –30.
Gemstone Lights Are Perfect For Edmonton’s Cold Winters
Okay, that’s what I hear. I’m not looking forward to it. We do live in Edmonton so there you go. And so now, right now is the time for people to get quotes, right? You can get a quote, you can go and measure the house and do all that kind of stuff, but you don’t really want to be out working in this because that’s when things turn black and fall off in weather. So, to be honest, the drills don’t even really want to—nothing wants to. I mean, people’s vehicles don’t even want to start.
So yeah, smaller things like grills and stuff—real hard time. Yeah, I mean, right now, to be honest, it’s kind of nice, because I was working so hard for, like, you know, when you’re saying November, December was busy, November and December were busy—they were booked already from like September, October. So, you know, it really does go quick, you know. You’re booking off, and especially in the busy time, like months in advance.
Install Your Permanent Christmas Lights Before Christmas
And so, yeah, even now, like, it’s—yeah, like, quite a few people still because it is still kind of that winter season. I think people still kind of have the Christmas lighting on the mind even though Christmas is gone now. But yeah, it’s a—it’s a good time to do quotes, and, yeah, still doing some installs, but I can be a little pickier about my days since there’s not the same deadline for Christmas.
People are pretty good with them having that looming deep coming up. Most people are actually telling me they don’t want me to show up on—it’s –25. So, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s—that’s pretty cold.
We wouldn’t want you to have problems with your issues with your vehicle, which I know you had some this year.
Exactly. Or your tools, or, you know—just frostbite, like, that’s a real thing. It is a real thing and it’s not fun.
Yeah, I’ve never really had bad frostbite. I’ve gotten cold before, but not really bad frostbite. So, where things, you know, turn black and fall off.
Yeah, I was actually about to reach in my pocket but I—I already had—doing quotes this morning. I had those hand warmers in my pockets but they’re in my other jacket. But, yeah, even for quotes—your hands get pretty cold. It’s –25, I sometimes don’t even realize it at first and then my pen doesn’t work and the next thing I know my hands are really cold. So I’m sitting in my truck for five minutes to warm up even in the middle of a quote. So, yeah, but that’s how it’s worth it.
There are some exciting things—people are starting to ask you about landscape lighting.
Landscape Lighting with Gemstone Lighting
Yeah.
Yeah, I’ve done a few different jobs for landscape lighting, in particular some decks as well. So we do, like, yeah, we have, like, flood lights for trees, and then they have, like, a kind of a—I don’t even know exactly what you would call it—for deck lighting. What is it? It’s just—it’s a bulb and then it’s got a sleeve on top that goes into the deck. Not sure if there’s a particular name for that exactly, but accent lighting for a deck.
Yeah. So that all runs off the same system as well, so you can—you’re unlimited amounts of colors and patterns and things you can do with it, and this is from Gemstone and that’s from Gemstone.
Yeah, so, and then, yeah, looking at the idea of some more products for, for some landscape lighting, and just creating a whole array from the yard to the house of light. And, yeah, lighting is cool—lighting is one of those things that, you know, just adds another depth of style and warmth and, and, you know, really accents the yard and accents your home, and makes it feel more inviting.
Create a Rich and Inviting Atmosphere
Yeah, it provides a richer atmosphere for it because, you know, anytime you go to a nice restaurant or you go to a building, a hotel, there’s always lights all over the place. You don’t really pay attention to them, but you know that they’re there. If they weren’t there, you’d be like, “Man, this place is bleak and dark.”
Very…there are some restaurants that are supposed to do that where it’s like black, but that’s a very particular experience. But it still accents the importance of light or the experience. In that case, the experience is a lack of light.
No light.
Yeah.
No.
It’s so true. Like everything in—I think even when you think of, like, even inside a home, the main particular area where you see light is actually in a kitchen. A kitchen is usually the feature of a home, and, you have, like, you know, a lot of kitchens—it’s no longer just the, like, one center kitchen light anymore. It’s like under-cabinet lighting, in-cabinet lighting, all these things, track lights, and, yeah. Really, what lighting does provide in every scenario is you—you tend to light up the areas that you like of your home more, you tend to darken the ones that you probably don’t want to see as much, since the closets tend to be darker.
Accent Light in The Right Places
But, yeah, it is really true. It really adds. Light does, you know, whether it’s even a dim light and the goal is just like, just to kind of, like, throw a little, like a slight accent over to, over here and over here and, draw a little bit of attention—not necessarily a massive spotlight to everything. It’s not always about making everything as bright and, you know, fireworks as possible, but, yeah, lighting really does just add to the appeal of a home in every way, yeah, inside and out. So, yeah, that’s exciting, to—to start going down that path. I love lighting and all things about, so, yeah, that’s something new that’s coming out, hopefully this summer.
And then the other part of it is getting help to actually do all these things, because I’m sure you don’t want to—you don’t mind working hard, but I’m sure you don’t want to do a repeat of what you did this last year.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. I know my goal is definitely to hire some, some good quality help. Yeah, again, the main thing is just to keep the quality at the highest standard. And so that’s what I’ll be looking for in the future is just finding some good help and, yeah, making sure we maintain the highest level of quality, quality, and making people happy.
Contact Natural Light for a Quote Today
So, all right, so Edmonton, and area—if you’re looking for accent lighting for your house, this is the guy to talk to. Go to www.my-naturallight.com and fill out the form, and you can also call the number there and you’ll get ahold of this guy, and he’ll come to your house and do a quote and get your house situated for some amazing Gemstone lighting and/or landscape lighting. See what transpires the next, next couple of months here. Thanks so much for joining us. That’s all the time we’ve got for today. We’ll see you next time. Thank you.