Depends on how much you want to accent the house. Personally, I'm not a fan of that look, and since you're pretty far away from anything you're basically doing it for when you or guests come up the driveway.

Anyway, outdoor lighting fixtures of a good quality can run $100-200 each, without installation. Add a transformer or several ($200-500 each), and you can see how the costs get up there pretty quickly.

Thank you. I don't really want a lot of it. Maybe 3 on the house (one in middle and at each end) and 3 on trees.

I think the plan they have is for like 20, and that is just way too much for me. We moved out to the country to be "out," and the idea of having the place lit up like a landing field does not appeal.

Thanks for the reality check on the pricing.

Your home is gorgeous! Is that Edenton brick? I like the black, I think accent lights would be a good idea. If they appeal to you and you alone that is enough to justify the costs. I would perhaps build driveway piers at entrance and put the lamp/pier posts on them.

good luck!

Okay, I have absolutely nothing to contribute as far as lighting suggestions...I just wanted to say that your home is STUNNING, STUNNING, STUNNING. Especially love the ceiling treatments. Just gorgeous!

Hi there teddas. Thank you! The brick is General Shale Colonade. I do think the lights would add to the overall look, I just didn't want to get into too many of them. We did a large brick gated entry (not 100% complete yet) since we need to be able to have the whole perimeter of the property enclosed in case a horse should get loose.

superchick, thank you VERY much! I really appreciate any and all positive input because I made every single selection myself. I was worried about some of the things because we have been in the same house since we got married 20 years ago and never built before. I was not sure how it was all going to turn out! One of the things my husband and I both wanted was heavy trim, but the ceilings ended up even better than I was hoping. Thank you again. It is definitely our dream home! :)

BTW, the good thing with landscape lighting is that you can always add more later without much difficulty. You just buy another light, dig up some ground for more cable, and connect. If you hit the transformer capacity, you can buy another one. It's not like wiring inside a house where you have to tear off walls.

If you're concerned about cost and not sure what you want to do, I would start small and tell the contractor you're thinking of adding more later, but not sure yet. Then he can either get a bigger transformer or hook things up so that you can install a second transformer later.

Actually I was at work earlier and unable to look at all pictures- your house is just a jawdropper!
I am looking for trim and your trim totally complements your 8 ft doors! The "ball" hanging light was so unique and matched the kitchen knobs and spindle baskets. It looks so put together. Can you please post your floor woods? And the kitchen cabinets? and lets see what else, the master tile? I can see that shade of blue being so calming!

Sorry, hijacking your thread here, as for the lights I would really do it up but maybe spotlight the house and bushes in certain places. I would definately incorporate lights into the back porch and pool area.

How lucky is that horse let alone its owners?
LOL, your hard work has paid off!
Wish me luck now.

Gorgeous, just stunning!! Congratulations, and you have received good advice above so I won't add. Love your setting, I grew up around horses and can completely appreciate the serenity you are about to call home. Love all of your trim, lighting selections etc. etc. Just gorgeous...

Amy

heimert, Excellent advice to make it "expandable." That is exactly what we'll do. Very helpful - thanks. Plus, ha ha, with all of the extra stuff (pool was not planned, etc.) we are about out of money!

teddas, thank you very much! The ball light is one of my favorites. I only got to see all of my lights in the catalogs and not live, so I was hoping they'd be OK. I am happy! The foyer light is the Troy La Paloma.

The cabinets are Haas Monticello maple with eggshell finish and pewter glaze. They really tried hard to talk me out of that color because they said "no one has ever done that before" haha, but I thought it would go well with my slate floors and granite. The kitchen is also a bit dark, so I wanted to go with light-colored cabinets.

The floors in the downstairs are Brazilian Cherry (final coat goes on next weekend) which took a LOT of time to source because I insisted on using only responsibly-harvested wood from a highly-regulated and certified company. (Those delays caused a lot of rolled eyes on the part of the builder and contractors.) Upstairs are Tiger Wood. I need to get pics of that wood - it's VERY cool!

The master tile I will have to see about getting that color for you. I LOVE my master bathroom. The house we are in now was built in 1850 and the master is the size of a closet. I will not know what to do with all that space. The icing on the cake in there is the heated floors. Mmmmm. Toasty! :)

Good luck with your build. It is exhausting but worth it.

amyks, thank you very much. I am still pinching myself. My husband and I built our current barn ourselves, so I plan to enjoy every minute of the new one with its bells and whistles. Only two weeks to go now! I am sure the horses will not even notice as long as they get fed on time. ;)

If you'll be spending much time out back in the evening, like dining alfresco or just sitting on the patio watching the kids play, you may want to have a lot more lighting than you mentioned.

Here's a photo of my backyard at night. Offhand, I'd guess there's about 30-40 lights - a combination of actual garden light fixtures and hidden accent lights (i.e. the bulbs under the countertop and seating ledges). There's probably the same amount in my front yard too, but it sounds like lighting the front isn't too important to you. Of course I'm in the 'burbs, so maybe less lighting is more appropriate for the country. But you can see from the photo the yard is still pretty dark even with all the lights - garden lighting is really just accent lighting; 30x10W garden lights don't equal one 300W flood light.

Fixtures vary pretty widely in price. I'd recommend getting metal rather than plastic. You can easily get 20 fixtures plus transformer and wire for under $1000 at home depot.

WOW chiefneil! That is one amazing "backyard." It looks like a resort.

I really like what you've done. Illuminated yet understated. Very nice. I'll refer to this when making our decision. We will be spending many night hours out back by the pool, and I think it would be very cool to take advantage of the HUGE trees back there by uplighting a few of them as well.

The idea of kind of building on a base is a good one to me as suggested earlier. My guess is we will put some in and realize we need more.

Thanks for your post.

Hi ChiefNeil,

Your back yard is spectacular. May I ask if you installed yourself or did you hire a professional? If you did do it yourself what light fixtures did you use.

Warmest regards, Mike.

First off ChiefNeil - stunning backyard!!! Did you do all that yourself? If so are you in central Texas! LOL!

I have nothing to contribute on the accent lighting but I had to tell you your home is BEAUTIFUL! I love the windows, the trim, the colors! Great job!

Thanks for the compliments, guys. There's no way I could've done it myself! If you check out the landscaping budget thread, you'll see that I spent quite a bit on the landscaping. Seems like I spent many times more than most people, but I totally feel it was worth it.

The fixtures out front (photo below) are made by Unique and use xenon bulbs. It's a bit of a long story, but I basically bought them with the house for about $100 each.

For the backyard fixtures I just told my landscaper that I wanted copper to match the front. I think he got them from Home Depot, but I never asked. The HD fixtures match the ones in the photo reasonably well, but if you care about such things they don't look quite as nice. The entire landscape/hardscape/pool were done by him as a "fixed bid", so he came up with the lighting plan on his own. I have to say that I got about 3x as many lights as I was expecting, but they do give that "wow!" resort-feel to the yard at night.

hold on a minute.... getting a rag to wipe up my drool! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your home! I don't have anything to add about the lights, except probably I agree with chiefneil, and less is more in the country. I so enjoyed looking at your beautiful home!

chiefneil, awesome back yard!

kelntx, thank you. I had so much fun picking out everything. We looked for an old home on acreage for months before we finally decided to just build the look we wanted. It has been a real labor of love.

chiefneil, really love the copper. Very unique and classy.

tinker, thanks so much. As I said earlier, positive comments really make my day. Seeing everything evolve over the months into the vision we had has been a really wonderful experience for us. :)