The only permanent lighting that we have under the deck is the light fixture next to the passage door into the garage. We also do not have any outdoor lights on the corners of the house which I have always thought was kind of strange. So the area under the deck where we typically grill is REALLY dark. We recently resolved this issue with a 102′ long string of party lights. I mean we won’t be able to do surgery, but we should be able to see well enough to grill some burgers.
As you may have suspected, the cord was not the exact length that we needed, so we had to do some cord management. The first cord to manage was where the string plugs into the outdoor rated white extension cord. I put a clip on the extension cord so it wouldn’t be hanging on the plug of the light string. I also took up the rest of the slack in the string of lights.
The shortest outdoor white cord that they had at our local Ace Hardware was 15′. I only needed one that was about 10′ long. I wrapped the cord around the exterior outlet and secured it with a zip tie. Mike had offered to cut it to length and put a new plug on it, but that seemed like more trouble than it was worth.
We had 3 more lights than we really needed, but there was no way not to use them since the lights are fully integrated with the cord–bulbs and all. I ran these along one of the joist and secured the extra cord above (there is 3′ between bulbs).
They are all up and working. Now we are ready to party! (Or at least grill in the dark.)
Cathy At Home on the River 
Necessity is the mother
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They look really good, and they are bright enough to grill by.
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