Split-levels in Hammond Hills, river lots off Riverside Drive, Huntcliff, North Springs, and the streets around City Springs
A lot of Sandy Springs houses have two rooflines at two different heights. Split-levels, ranches with a raised wing, homes stepping down a hill. That is easier to light than it sounds, as long as someone else is on the ladder. Text us a photo and the address. We quote it in writing, hang it in a day, and come back in January to take it down.
Sandy Springs sits right above the city of Atlanta, where GA-400 crosses I-285, and it is the southern end of North Fulton. The name comes from an actual spring. It is still there on Sandy Springs Circle, on a small historic site next to the Williams-Payne House, an 1869 farmhouse that was moved there in the 1980s. The city itself is younger than the neighborhoods. It incorporated in 2005, long after most of its houses were built.
Those houses mostly came in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, when the new highways made this a fast drive into town. That means a lot of brick ranches and split-levels on sloped, wooded lots. Hammond Hills, a swim and tennis neighborhood of more than a hundred homes, went up largely in the 1950s and 60s. River Shore Estates is another 1960s neighborhood with big lots and a lot of trees. North Springs, near GA-400 and the schools, is mostly ranches and traditional homes, many renovated over the years. Along Riverside Drive, the houses get bigger and more varied, with midcentury moderns, custom builds, and larger estates on winding, wooded roads down toward the Chattahoochee.
Huntcliff, further up the river, is its own world. The homes sit on large, rolling lots, and the neighborhood has a river preserve with a pool, tennis courts, horse stables, and trails through about 54 acres of forest and river frontage. Houses like these tend to sit back from the road, so we plan the lights around what you can actually see from the driveway.
December has a clear center now. City Springs, the civic district with City Hall and a performing arts center, hosts a holiday parade that ends with the lighting of a menorah and a Christmas tree, and the district stays lit through the season. Houses around the Roswell Road corridor see a lot of evening traffic that month, which is one more reason to get on the schedule early.
Split-levels have a low wing and a tall wing. We light both so the lines connect cleanly, with strands cut to each run instead of left hanging off the end.
Oaks and pines shade a lot of Sandy Springs roofs. Sometimes the trees are the better display, and we will tell you when they are.
Older streets often have no HOA at all, while newer pockets and swim-tennis clubs may have guidelines. Either way, send what applies and we quote to it.
Timer set at install. If a strand goes dark under a heavy branch after a storm, text us a photo and it goes on the next route.
A split-level has a one-story roofline over the living room and a two-story line over the bedrooms, often with a short set of stairs to the front door. We light both eaves in the same bulb and spacing, then wrap the porch posts or stair rail. The whole front reads as one house instead of two. Most split-levels are a quick install, since the low side is barely a ladder job at all.
Many 1960s Sandy Springs ranches are long and low, with a single gutter line that runs the whole width of the house. That is about the simplest roofline there is, and it looks sharp with one clean row of C9 or C7 bulbs. Add a few lit shrubs under the front windows and you are done. The whole-house package bundles the shrubs in.
Off Riverside Drive and in Huntcliff, a house can sit a long way from the road behind big hardwoods. Lighting the driveway edge and the trunks near the entrance gives visitors a lit path in and shows off the setting. We use tension wraps on trunks and stakes along the drive, and nothing goes into the house.
Some Sandy Springs owners who are renovating an older house ask about lights that stay up year-round. Permanent track lighting mounts under the roof edge and can be set to warm white in December and other colors the rest of the year. It is a separate install from our seasonal service. See permanent lights.
After the holidays we take everything down, pull every clip, and coil and label each strand by location. We store them until next season. Next fall, the same strands go back on the same runs.
A house built in the 1960s may have only one outdoor outlet, sometimes on the back patio, and it may not be a GFCI. Before install day, check that the outlet works and that the breaker is on. LED strands use a small fraction of the power older incandescent sets did, so one circuit usually handles a split-level roofline and some shrubs with room to spare. Our install day checklist shows how to test outlets, and our post on electricity use covers the running cost. If there is no outlet out front at all, tell us when you text the photo. We will plan the runs around the ones you have.
Quick answers for split-levels, river lots, and the older streets inside the Perimeter.
Yes. The trick is treating the low roof and the high roof as one design. We run the same bulb and spacing on both, bring the lines to a clean stop at each corner, and often wrap the porch posts to tie the lower level in. Our roofline lighting page covers bulb options.
A little. Gutter clips need a clear lip to grab, and full gutters can be heavy and messy. If you can get them cleaned before install day, great. Our install day checklist lists a few other quick things to check.
Start with what you can see from the street. On a deep Riverside or Huntcliff lot, that might be two or three wrapped trunks and a lit driveway edge instead of every gable. See tree and shrub wrapping.
Yes. We install before opening or after close, set the timer to your hours, and take everything down in January. The small business lighting page has the details.
Text a photo of your house and the address to (470) 470-4485. Free written quote, lights up in a day, and gone in January.
Point your phone here
Your camera opens a text to (470) 470-4485. Snap the front of your house and hit send.
