Riverlake Christmas Light Installation

About 150 Riverlake houses have a second face, and it looks out on 32 acres of private lake, where the folks across the water get a full view of your back elevation every night. Riverlake Christmas light installation, here in Sacramento’s Pocket, gets planned around both sides, around the gates, and around the association’s written lighting dates.

Riverlake is one of very few places around Sacramento where we’ve found a holiday lighting rule in black and white. The Riverlake Community Association’s Rules and Regulations include an Exterior Seasonal Lighting Policy. It says seasonal lights may be temporarily attached to the outside of a home starting Thanksgiving Day and running until mid-January, and then they have to be removed. The copy we read names no exact January day.

So your install goes on our calendar no earlier than Thanksgiving Day, and your removal gets booked for early January, leaving room to spare. Boards do revise their rules, so ask the association office for the latest version each fall. Lakefront owners also belong to the separate Riverlake Lake Association, and it’s worth asking there about anything on the water side. Then call (916) 313-4551 with what you hear.

The community’s CC&Rs call for wood shake roofs, with tile allowed by the architectural committee, so we don’t expect plain shingles here. Both materials hate being walked on. Old shake splits and tile cracks. We stay on ladders at the eave and fasten roofline lights with gutter-lip clips, or with clips shaped for tile edges. Nothing gets wedged under a shake, and nothing is nailed, stapled or drilled into stucco or trim. Once the lights are gone in January, you’d never guess we had been up there.

About 150 of the roughly 1,010 home lots sit on the lake, and the association keeps seven small marinas around it. If yours is a lake lot, treat the water side as its own display: a roofline on the back eave, pillar wraps on patio posts, lit garland on a deck rail. Light doubles itself on water, so a simple line goes a long way. Mention where the rear outlets are when you call.

Around three quarters of the lots are behind gates on private streets, spread over 11 villages, and the place is patrolled. We can’t let ourselves in, and we wouldn’t want to. You arrange access twice, once to hang and once to remove, and we show up when we said we would. One more item on our list: we keep off common-area trees, landscaping and entry features. They’re the association’s property, not any one owner’s.

We also light the rest of Pocket-Greenhaven outside the gates. If the entry is your focus, our garland page is handy, and our Sacramento page gives the bigger picture.

• Roofline lights on the street side, the lake side or both.
• Tree wraps on trunks inside your own lot.
• Pillar and column wraps flanking your front door.
• Stake lighting edging the driveway or front walk, kept off the sprinkler heads.
• Lit wreaths for the door and front windows.
• Lit garland over the entry or on a railing.

All of it rides in on our truck and runs on a timer, so the house goes dark late at night with nobody stepping outside to unplug it. If a section fails mid-December, phone (916) 313-4551.

We quote during a call to (916) 313-4551, or from pictures you text or email or send through the contact page. One of the street face will do, plus one of the back for lakefront homes. Name your village and how to find you from Greenhaven Drive, Rush River Drive or Pocket Road.

Take the lake photo at dusk if you can. The water does half our work.

What is the first day Riverlake’s policy lets seasonal lights go on a house?

The Riverlake Community Association’s Exterior Seasonal Lighting Policy allows seasonal lights on a home’s exterior starting Thanksgiving Day until mid-January. Rules can change, so confirm against the association’s current copy.

How far ahead of Riverlake’s mid-January cutoff do the lights come down?

Early in January, ahead of the mid-January removal point in the association’s policy. The written rule we read doesn’t name an exact day, so we don’t cut it close.

Who gets your installers past the Riverlake gates?

You set up access for us on install day and removal day, as you would for any contractor. We can’t obtain gate codes ourselves.

Can you light the lake side of my house?

Yes. Lakefront homes have a rear elevation facing the water, and a roofline, post wraps or garland can go back there. Lakefront owners should also check with the Riverlake Lake Association.

Is a shake or tile roof a problem for lights?

No. We stay on ladders at the eave and use gutter clips or tile clips, so shakes and tiles aren’t stepped on or pried up.