Light moves: Custom exterior lighting marks holidays, shows team spirit

MOSES LAKE — Lighting up the outside of a house for the holidays looks pretty, but it can be a whole lot of work to set up. That’s what Moses Lake brothers Zach and Nate Thomas aim to change. 

“Instead of traditional Christmas lighting where there's strings of lights, ours is an LED lighting product (in which) the bulbs go into a color matched aluminum track that matches your trim,” Zach said. “It’s decorative, but it’s also functional.” 

The lights from Lights by HomeOne are installed as a permanent fixture under the soffit, the underside of the house’s eave, Zach said, and controlled by a phone app. 

“You just set your preferences the (first) time with installation,” he said. “You set up your timer so that at sunset, it's going to come on to some classy down lighting. You can set a security setting; I have mine at 10:30 p.m. so one in every 10 bulbs is on, so it just gives a little bit of light. And then at sunrise it goes off.” 

The lights aren’t just white illumination; however, they also have a mixture of colors that can be programmed through the app. The app also features presets for users who prefer to do things the easy way. 

“Say you want to do all U.S. holidays,” Zach said. “You just click one button and then automatically on Fourth of July it'll do red, white and blue. For Halloween it will change colors 10 days before Halloween. The month of December it’s Christmas lights. You don't even have to touch anything. Not only do you not have to put up extra lights, you don't even have to push extra buttons.” 

There are presets for favorite sports teams, to change over when the game is on, said Kip Burns, who had his MarDon-area home outfitted with Lights by HomeOne a couple of years ago, he said. 

“When people come to our house, if it's daylight, they don't even know (the lights) are there,” Burns said. “We love the Seahawks, we love the Mariners, our local teams. Well, in the app, you can (program it) so when the Seahawks play, as soon as they're going to kick off, the lights go to the Seahawk colors. And when the Seahawks score, the lights flash in celebration. It's amazing. We've come home in the evening one time and went, ‘Oh, the Mariners are playing tonight’ because our lights are outside will come on. (With the Mariners) there'll be a hit and somebody will get a home run, and the lights will flash the colors. It's unbelievable.” 

The Thomas brothers sell Lights by HomeOne as a sideline, they said. During the day, they’re both physicians, specializing in family medicine. Zach practices at Samaritan Healthcare, and Nate at Confluence Health. 

The brothers discovered Lights by HomeOne in their hometown of Calgary, Alberta, they said. When they finished medical school and set up their homes in Moses Lake, they looked around for something else to do, and this was something they could do in their extra time. 

“We don't really see ourselves as salespeople, where we're trying to talk you into why you need the lights,” Nate said. “Most people we talk to already realize that they need something. And then when they see our lights, they see it as a viable solution, whether it be ‘I never have to get up on the ladder to put up my Christmas lights again’ or ‘My yard is so dark (and) I've had people sneaking around the back and breaking into our shed.’” 

“They're not cheap, but they've been well worth it,” Burns said. 

    The Lights by HomesOne system can be programmed from a phone app to change colors and flash to mark holidays or even when the Seahawks score.
  

    Lights by HomesOne’s lights attach to the underside of a home’s eave and are almost undetectable by daylight, but at night they can provide security lighting for a perimeted of about 20 feet around the house.