took me a while but I finally got my overly complicated light switch to work with a lever.

my stuffty mockup house

obviously obvious lever that you pull

lights on

lights off

the longass wire that goes all the way to the start of this entire stuffstorm of a system

using pistons to stop a current shortly after it has been delivered to simulate the output given by buttons
on the other side of the input block is a redstone torch so that one side checks to see if it is one and another to check if it's off

redstone torches behind a block that goes off and on in a short burst to lower the pistons in order for the lights to be moved and switch, it then comes back on and extends the new light to the floor
there are another pair of torches on the other side powered by wires that go underneath the sticky pistons in the middle, the two inverters I had to use to direct current upward delayed it slightly which is why there are repeaters in the following image next to the two normal pistons on the side

these are the pistons that switch the lights, pushing them over once they have retracted for a short time
my sandbox save yet again:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8005323/Sandbawks.zip