I need stakes, too. For the smaller lights, such as the "Bristow" color-changing lights from Patriot Lighting (which incidentally stay on beautifully all night with limited sun), the stakes from cheaper white-only lights are identical and will work. But I left the stakes in the ground this year for three larger crackle lights, planning to put the lights back on the stakes in the spring, and came back to find that someone had either driven over them or tried to remove them, and they were broken off with the pointed part still in the frozen ground. These stakes are larger in diameter and not so easy to replace. I am thinking of using dowels. Has anyone else tried this? The light shaft is hollow and should fit over the part of a dowel that protrudes from the ground, and wood is very durable. The hard part, for me, whould be sharpening the end so it will go into the ground, but maybe they will do it at the lumber yard.

A link to a picture of my set up is provided below, it is on Flickr. My plants are already much taller than what this picture shows. In my haste to get better lighting, I purchased shop lights that can hold T12's or T8's. Right now there are T12's with mixed warm (2700k) and daylight (6500k) bulbs (k's might be off a bit but whatevs, you get what I mean). Now I am contemplating getting one of the nice T5 4ft lights that I am seeing all over the internet. Sadly, all the local hardware stores do not seem to carry any T5 bulbs or fixtures. If they do they are the 2ft one light holders. Maybe I'll just go down to T8's and proceed from there once my plants get bigger. Some will be going outside, provided the rain ever stops for more than a day. Here is a link that might be useful: Picture of my wire shelf + lights

DH doesn't want lamps on the porch. We had decided on 5 cans, separate switch (dimmer). But if the cans attract bugs that defeats the purpose, we'd want them on for a little light in the evenings while we're out there. Maybe just citronella candles? DH wants to put Moquito Magnet out by the railing end (near basement door, plugged in behind the white table, which is b/t the wooden rockers). Don't want/need fans on the porch - would do that if enclosed but since the floor is what gets hot (plenty of wind around here) it wouldn't help much. When it's really hot we go inside where we have AC. Never seen fans on a NE front porch ;-) - looking for unobtrusive.

They newer photos of your paint look pretty close to my kitchen and family room walls. :-) Don't worry about the mini-novel. It's the cheapest therapy there is, and if you can get a laugh in here or there, pretty good medicine too. You're doin' good!