I'm trying to surprise my wife with lighting up our house for her birthday. I got a quote from a professional company a few years ago and it was over 2K, so I'm so glad I found this site. If I can self-install I think I can pull it off. The problem is I'm not handy at all, and I have a challenging front with a 3 car wide driveway to deal with. I'll post pictures, but here are my main questions if anyone is able to help: What do I do over that wide driveway space? How do I cross it, and where do I put a light for that space? I think the quote I got called for at least one gutter mount, but not sure how they were planning to get wires across that. Would it be easier to get 2 transformers and not have to cross that entire space? If I got a package with 6 bulbs, where would you put each one? I tried to upload pictures here but couldn't figure out how to get the file size small enough. I have some loaded into a Google doc here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_jdK8NoVVfRo7HYq-astM0XYomFC7GLvvYmuUxDlxnk/edit?usp=sharing Thanks for any help you all can offer, it would be much appreciated!
Hi, Brandon. I'm a fellow lighting enthusiast. I marked up one of your photos to give you an idea of one approach to lighting your home. If you can take advantage of one or more of your expansion gaps (red and blue graphics, i.e.) you should be able to get away with a single transformer. It even looks like you might be able to route one from your garage (if you wanted to mount a transformer in there). If you're not able to use the expansion gaps and you don't want to deal with pulling a cable under your driveway, it might be best to go with two transformers. If you're starting with six fixtures, I would probably go with the locations shown in yellow. On that turret to the left of your front door, I would place lights where indicated as well as that third angle (corner just to the right of your downspout on the left side of your house, if that makes sense). When you expand, you might consider lighting that grey area on the larger gable and the section to the left of the basketball hoop. Because the three extruded brick sections and the sections on the turret are all quite narrow, I recommend that you go with beam spreads no wider than 20°. Hope this helps to get you started.
