Orangevale Christmas Light Installation

Along Chestnut, Main, Walnut and Orangevale Avenue, some of the gnarled olive trees by the road were planted when this was still farm country, and they’ve outlasted most of the barns. Old olives, big oaks, horse fences and a half acre or more of yard is a lot to light on your own, and it’s exactly the kind of property we enjoy. We do Orangevale Christmas light installation from just down the road, and the south end of town, where Orangevale meets Fair Oaks, is a short drive for us.

An olive trunk is twisted and knobby, which actually makes it one of the nicer trees to wrap. The strand settles into the grooves and follows the shape. The branches are a different matter. They split into a lot of thin, whippy growth, so we don’t load them up. We light the trunk and the main forks and let the silvery canopy catch the glow.

The oaks get a relaxed spiral with room between the strand and the bark. If we see a cracked or dead branch while we’re up there, we’ll tell you and leave it out of the plan. We’d like that tree to see a few more Decembers.

Around Oak Avenue, it’s mature trees and a mix of well-kept older homes and newer ones. Rooflines vary a lot from house to house, so nobody gets the same layout as the neighbor. Casa Robles, the streets around Casa Roble High School, is tree-lined, with tidy yards where a clean roofline and a couple of wrapped trunks are plenty. Around Pershing Avenue the lots are often long and narrow, with shade over most of the front, so we lean on the walkway and the trees more than the roof.

Out toward Twin Lakes and Lake Natoma the land starts to roll, and a house set up on a slope looks best with the driveway lit all the way up. Linda Creek Estates is regular subdivision lots, so the olive-and-oak approach gives way to a clean roofline and one wrapped front tree. In the old Orange Vale Colony core, you still find ranch houses on real acreage, some with horses and a barn out back. Those are the jobs where the driveway and the fence line matter as much as the house.

A long gravel or paved drive is perfect for stake lighting. We space the stakes evenly along both edges, keep them clear of sprinkler lines and drip tubing, and make sure they’re out of the way of anything that plows through, like trucks and trailers. Fence lights are the other big one out here. We clip or soft-tie the strands to the top rail of a wood or pipe fence, never staples, and keep cords low and tucked. Our fence line page goes into it.

If you keep horses, tell us where they go. We keep cords and strands out of reach of curious lips and teeth, and we won’t run anything along a pasture fence they can lean on. Power can be a stretch on big lots, too, so we plan outlets before the first strand goes up, and a timer runs it every night.

Roofline lights go along the eaves, peaks and gables with plastic clips, so nothing goes into the fascia or the shingles. Ranch houses with a front porch take pillar and column wraps well. Out here a barn gable or the front gate can carry a lit wreath as well as the door can, and lit garland runs along porch railings, a banister or an entry arch. We bring all the lights and handle every bit of the ladder work, so you never touch a strand.

One more thing about older ranch houses out here: many were added onto over the years, so the roofline might jump from a low porch eave to a higher addition and back down again. We don’t try to hide that. We light each section on its own and let the steps in the roof show, which usually looks more honest and more interesting than one long line forced across everything.

We also light small businesses along Greenback and Hazel Avenue, and churches and HOA entrances around town; the same number, (916) 999-5158, books those.

We come back in January to take down every strand, stake and clip. Your roof is clear again well before spring, and you have nothing to store. If a run goes dark in mid-December, call (916) 999-5158 and we’ll come out.

We spend a lot of the season in Citrus Heights and Fair Oaks, so an Orangevale stop fits easily, and our Citrus Heights page covers the town just west of you. Estimates are free over the phone at (916) 999-5158. Tell us about the trees, the fences, the drive and any horses, or send a few pictures through our contact page.