Low voltage lighting is great but it is commonly done incorrectly. Often gets assoiciated with a form of wiring that is simple and easy to do but it a lot of cases, it is more difficult than 120 volt circuits. To do it right I would use the industrial stainless steel transformer timer boxes. These are typically around $250 as to the $60 home depot plastic ones. They are necessary especially when lighting a house. Another situation is planning the wiring. A big mistake is "Well its low voltage so I don't need a big wire" Truth is, you need a bigger wire. Good to always use 12 gauge landscape cable but if the line is over 75 feet, have to go up to 10. A run really far like across a back yard is often 8 gauge wire. You also can't just run every light of one line. You typically run 4 seperate lines on a large installation. Put the first section of lights on the 1st section, 25 feet away start using the 2nd line, another 25 feet use the 3rd line. The fancy trasformer has multiple outputs, 12 volt, 13, 14, 15, and 16 volt. If the line is supplying lights that are on the other side of the house, use the 16 volt connection. That way by the time the electricity makes it to the lights, it looses 4 volts but still has the needed 12 volts to light up the light properly. I have seen many houses with bright lights on the left and dark on the right, that is because they use the standard home depot transformers, or don't plan the wiring layout. I've seen a lot of installers use underground well lights to light the house itself rather than the stick in the ground floods. They usually leave the wells up a bit so they dont get covered with mulch. But the well lights give a nice wide lighting angle. Its best to pick peices of the landscape like certain shrubs to light as to broad flood lighting. If the entire area is flooded, it looks more like security light than designer lighting. Just like in a living room, often artwork is lit with cans as to big fluoresent lights filling the entire room with gaudy light. Path way lights are nice too but I think it looks better to use a minimal ammount of high quality expensive fixtures as to a bunch of tiered path lights from home depot that you see in millions of yards in the US. There are really nice path lights out there that are made of brass, copper, fancy metal. Might try www.ccl-light.com They have a great variety of higher quality fixtueres. They also carry the stainless steel transformers and large spools of landscape wire. They also carry a lot of surface mount deck lights, lights to light the house, well lights. The well lights would be good for both lighting the house but also for trees. Looks a lot neater when they are level with the ground than a flood light on a stake. You'll probably want one transformer for the back yard and one for the front. Also could put one on the left side yard and one on the right and put both front yard and back yard left lights on one and backyard/front yard right lights on the other. Just whichever divides out the best. Or if you don't have a lot of lights in the back yard, you may beable to put the entire system on one trasformer. They have them in all different sizes, just sometimes it is easier to bring the transformers close to where the lighting is to avoid lots of runs of cable (which is not cheap) Glad your looking into, landscape lights are great and good ones will last a long time and add value to the home. A big kit in a box from homedepot usually doesn't to the trick though :)

Revisiting this as the locals jurisdiction OK'd the build application of this type of steel cable railing. We're starting to do the some CSI on who locally on who can fabricate this for us.

We're in the North Bay (SF Bay Area), so I am incredibly disappointed that the much touted TWP is not an option. Do you do a wet-on-wet application of the Penofin? Ideally I'd love the finish to last a couple of years. Any way to keep the ipe looking great for that long?? I've since moved from the ipe posts to a black powder-coated aluminum, by Feeney (Design Rail). I was surprised by how pricey they are (isn't everything?), but I think it will be a clean, contemporary look. I was a little afraid that the wooden posts would render a bit more of a rustic feel than I ideally was hoping for. And, yes, we'll be doing an ipe cap. My neighbors stairs ARE protected from the sun. However, our deck is pretty much in full sun...alternating with full fog. So, Penofin... What color do you recommend? And, do you put it on immediately after installation or do you let the deck "weather" a bit? And other prep work after installation before staining?? Many, many thanks!!!!

I guess the curved staircase trains you to hold on to the bannister for dear life. I have fallen down mine three times sliding down on my back. That wouldn't be such an issue if I hadn't had 3 back surgeries with tons of hardware. Gosh darn it hurts. If I have dry cleaning to take in, I just throw it over the bannister and pick it up when I get to the first floor. I also find that carpet on stairs is a fall hazard - at least for me. But my orthopedic and neurosurgeon say that doing stairs everyday is good for you - or good for their wallet if I go down it again and break something!