Campus Commons Christmas Light Installation

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If you live in Nepenthe, the largest of the Campus Commons villages, no one is permitted on your roof to hang holiday lights. Not you, not your nephew with the extension ladder, not us. It’s written into the association’s rules, next to a start date, an end date and a height limit. Campus Commons Christmas light installation mostly comes down to knowing those rules before a ladder leaves the truck, so they’re spelled out below. Anything they don’t answer, ask at (916) 586-7193.

What the Nepenthe rule says

The Nepenthe Association’s Community Rules have a section called Holiday Decor, numbered 4.4.7. It was adopted in 2012, and the copy we read is the 2019 edition. In our words:

• Dates. Seasonal decorations are allowed from the weekend before Thanksgiving until January 7.
• Places. Your immediate front entrance, the garage door surround, gutters and alleyways, plus shrubs, bushes and trees immediately adjoining your property.
• Height. Fifteen feet is the ceiling.
• Roof. Nothing goes on it, and nobody may get on it to install anything.
• Common area. No electrical decorations on Common Area light fixtures. Nothing may cover an address plaque, block common lighting or become a trip hazard.
• Enforcement. The association can disconnect, move or remove whatever breaks the rule.

One caution, and we mean it. That document is several years old and boards revise rules. Before we put you on the schedule, confirm the current wording with the Nepenthe office at the clubhouse, 1131 Commons Drive. If the dates or limits have changed, the new version is the one we follow.

The other villages are separate associations

Campus Commons isn’t one HOA. Nepenthe is the big one, and villages such as Campus Commons Village One have associations of their own. The Nepenthe rule doesn’t bind them, and we don’t have their rules in hand, so you won’t get dates out of us for those. Tell us at (916) 586-7193 which village you’re in and what your association currently allows. Hang day and the January takedown both get booked inside whatever it says.

Campus Commons Christmas light installation with both feet off the roof

A no-roof rule sounds like a problem. It isn’t much of one. In Nepenthe, “roofline lights” simply means the gutter line, and gutters are reached from a ladder standing on the ground. The strands sit in gutter clips. Nothing is nailed or stapled to siding or trim, which matters in a place where the association runs its own siding and painting cycle.

The rest of the list fits the rule too:

• Lit garland framing the doorway, with a lit wreath hung in the middle of it. That’s the “immediate front entrance,” exactly where the rule wants things.
• The garage door surround, outlined.
• Pillar wraps on entry posts, if your unit has them, kept under the height cap.
• Tree wraps and shrub lighting only on plants immediately adjoining your home. Campus Commons is heavily wooded, and most of that canopy is common area. We leave common-area trees alone unless the association itself hires us.
• Stake lighting only on ground that’s actually yours. Much of what looks like a front yard here is association landscaping, and the meandering pathways are exactly where a cord turns into a trip hazard.

The homes were built by Sacramento developer Robert C. Powell: single-family houses, condos and townhouses, mostly two or three bedrooms, all in coordinated earth-tone browns. Translation for lighting purposes: modest frontages and close neighbors. A tidy gutter line and a lit entry is the right amount. A timer shuts the whole display off at a decent hour and the people who share your wall stay friendly.

The end date is ours to worry about

We own the lights, we bring them, and we schedule Nepenthe takedowns ahead of the association’s cutoff. You don’t climb anything and you don’t store anything. If a strand fails in December, phone (916) 586-7193 and we’ll repair it.

Getting a quote in Campus Commons

Pricing a Campus Commons job takes a phone conversation, or a few pictures sent to us by text or email. Entry, garage and gutter line in frame is plenty. Mention your village so we know whose rules apply.

Our base is close by in Arden-Arcade, near Bell Street. Tell us where you are by the nearest landmark: by the Guy West Bridge, along the Campus Commons Golf Course, across the river from Sacramento State. Any of those works for us. We also cover Sacramento as a whole, and the rules disappear entirely in Sierra Oaks, which has no HOA. If the wreath is the main thing you’re after, see wreath hanging.

Send photos through the contact page or dial (916) 586-7193. Either way, nobody is going on your roof.

Straight answers for Campus Commons

When can holiday lights go up in Nepenthe?

The 2019 edition of the Nepenthe Community Rules allows seasonal decorations from the weekend before Thanksgiving until January 7. Boards update rules, so confirm the current copy with the Nepenthe office before you book.

Can you put lights on my roof in Nepenthe?

No. The Nepenthe rule bars decorations on roofs and bars anyone from getting on a roof to install them. We light the gutter line from ladders instead.

I’m in Village One, not Nepenthe. Do the same dates apply?

Not automatically. Village One and the other Campus Commons villages are run by separate associations with separate rulebooks. Check with yours and tell us what it allows.

Can you light the big tree in front of my unit?

Only if it immediately adjoins your home, and only up to fifteen feet under the Nepenthe rule. Common-area trees are the association’s, so we stay off them unless the association hires us.