"Well, I know this is gonna sound lazy, but I HATE having to go around the room and individually turn on 3 or 4 lamps in the room just to get sufficient lighting. I feel like I should be able to just flip a switch to get the right lighting." You can, although it might cost you a bit (depending on the physical structure of the house, easiest if you have access to the walls in question from basement or attic). Have an electrician install some new outlets, switch-operated and connected so that flipping the switch sends power to all those particular outlets. Usually it's just one plug-in to the pair. This is actually the norm where I live until you get into the high-end and custom houses, switched outlets instead of overhead lighting. In our living room, for example, on every outlet one plug is controlled by the switch, so we have several lamps (but a decorative overhead is still going in when we take down the LR ceiling). Or, if you are willing to learn something new about technology, you can check out the wireless lighting control setups like KeypadLinc Insteon or LampLinc. You plug the wireless receiver units into the wall outlets, plug your lamps into the wireless receivers, and your central controller (which often looks just like a regular light switch and can be installed in the wall just like a regular switch) switches on/off all the lamps plugged into receiver units with the touch of a button. Some of these setups can even be controlled when away from home with a smartphone, so you can come home to an already-lit-up house. Check out the site smarthome.com - they have good tech support folks who will tell you exactly what you need to get the result you want. You can get an expandable kit that will control "3 or 4 lamps" for under quite a bit under $200. You can even change the frequency of the controller/receiver if you want to use these setups in multiple rooms, so that turning on the lights in one room doesn't affect the lights in other rooms. I have no shame in admitting that I loathe recessed lighting ("ceiling acne") - PO put a gazillion can lights in my kitchen and you could light that place up like an operating room (which DH always does, gives me a headache) and still have shadows and if you're doing something that blocks that overhead light you can't see a darn thing. I strongly agree with amysrq there is no ONE optimal type of lighting fixture - IMO every room should have a mix. If I want perimeter ambient lighting, I'd rather have decorative wall sconces, combined with a lovely central fixture (and all on dimmers!). Task lighting is a MUST. Frankly, I prefer having somewhat uneven lighting between ambient (not so bright), task (bright), and decorative lighting (in-between); having the same light level throughout an entire room looks a bit institutional to me.

Here's the front porch with the new porch light:My brother Kevin bought the red mailbox in Palm Springs the last time we were there - it is difficult to find interesting mailboxes, but I think this one is okay. The porch light is new, and I bought it and installed it temporarily before the painters started because I wanted to get it fitted in first. It is from Kuna, but I bought it at Lowe's, and it was the first one (and only one) I found that has LED lamping and motion detection with a modern design that I found acceptable. It's not the greatest or most interesting design, but I am okay with it, and it is infinitely better than what we had before (see photo way above). This sconce does much more, however, and I have decided that I like the added features. First, it has an additional security camera that only starts recording when someone approaches the door, and it makes a doorbell sound outside as well as on my phone to let me know that someone is at the door. I also see the photo/video of the person on my phone. The other two security camera that we have are hardwired to a screen just inside the door, and these cameras start recording when a moth flies by or when a cat walks on our driveway, and so they are a bit too sensitive, but I think I might be able to adjust that. The old security cameras are not equipped with WiFi (I didn't have a Smartphone when we got them), but the video screen does have a memory stick that saves the videos, although we have to take it out and download whatever we want to keep. The video screen also has an intercom so that I can talk to someone at the door if I want to, whereas the light does not. We used to have a clear window in our old door, but when we got the new door, we had to get the security cameras so that we could see who was on the front porch without opening the door. We've not had any Jehova's Witnesses visit us since we put up the security cameras. I don't like the look of the security cameras, but I am pretty much stuck with them.

When I lived in CA, what Elmer describes was quite common - signs but no security system. The house we rented had a private security SERVICE contract - it was a number one called if someone was breaking into the house and you were there. We did pay for this as at that time (early 1980's) the average response time from LAPD was 25 minutes and with the security service, it was 3 minutes. While it was a VERY affluent area (we rented!), there were regular break-ins and it was unsafe to ever walk on the sidewalks after dark - sometimes even earlier. Personal muggins were quite common - this in a neighborhood where the house prices started at about 1.5 million and went UP from there very quickly. BTW - ADT has never offered me additional signs and stickers since I got the system about 18 years ago.

I somewhat disagree. It depends where you live. We have no street lights on our side of the street, for example, so at night, when someone comes down our street looking for our house I find, in particular, lights by the garage, the front porch, and the front door very useful. Adding in the soffit lights helps too. As I said before, for us, we don’t use soffit lights often but the others we have on nightly and leave the ones by door overnight.