Time For Photo Updates

Cleaning house for our weekend guests (and to leave a clean place for our return from Badasht). We've done lots of work on the 'house tuning front'. Meaning that many of my AFTER photos need updates because we're now up to, shall we say, POST-MODERNIST AFTER status.

• Low voltage yard lights (15 total) throughout the back yard.
• Low voltage lights now illuminate the east side path and the front yard steps (8 lights).
• Low voltage spots are getting worked in around a couple key landscape items in the front yard (2 more).
• Upgraded the low voltage power pack to handle the actual load of lights.
• Step stones in place in front and east side (thanks to R, M and C).
• SE corner rain gutter replaced with a copper gutter chain (again, thanks to R, M and C).
• Final work to pound down decorative gravel around all the pavers and step stones.
• More bark dust to finish off the front and side.

I need to bury the new lighting wire in the front yard. We need to clean and organize the living space of the house at a minimum. It'd be ideal to clean up my workbench, too, but optional.

If the yard, though, was starting to ''pop' before, it's bounding on a trampoline now. The lights have been an attention to detail that has taken the yard appeal to a whole new level. None of the other houses around us are using outdoor lighting for anything other than a minimal street sign or sidewalk lamps. Now, we have a night time look that includes hightlighted trees as well as illuminated paths. It may be night, but its still a garden; not a dark place.

The comment with M last night was, 'wow, Dad. It looks like Disneyland!'

The coolest part? Mostly we've been financing the lights by returning our surplus materials. They're not really costing us much.

One concern I had was all the electricity that we'd be burning with the yard lights. First, the lights are on a timer, running only for about 5 hours a night. Second, these are low-wattage bulbs. For 25 lamps throughout the house, we're using a total of 250W; averaging 10W per bulb. That's less than our dining room chandelier would use if it ran on incandescent bulbs.