Home alone again = another project!

To those of you who aren't married and do not work in education: "DO NOT MARRY SOMEONE WHO IS IN EDUCATION." It really isn't fair when you don't have as much time off as your significant other. Karen went home to visit her family again last Friday, so I've been on my own for 7 days. I can't blame her for taking advantage of the time off, but that doesn't mean that I'm not jealous about it.  Time to myself always ends up with some sort of project to work on.

This time, it is operation deck lighting. I have been wanting to add some subtle lighting to the deck ever since we moved in and I just happened to have a 12volt outdoor light controller sitting in a box for that specific purpose. We bought it a year ago at a Lowe's open box clearance and it has been waiting for us to find some lights to hook up to it. Not finding any lights that I really liked, I went into my usual "do it yourself" mode.

I ordered up a handful of bright LEDs and fired up the soldering iron. I did four strips of 4 LEDs and mounted them in a simple wood holder that I attached to the underside of the handrail. I also wanted to light the stairs, but I didn't want to create a trip hazard. I decided to flush mount one LED at the edge of the stair tread, shining down on the step below it. I only did every other step, I thought doing all of them would be too much. Here are a few pictures of the results:

Here are the LEDs in the wood housings. The LEDs are small, only about 1/4" diameter.

Here is the wiring that I did to get everything working properly, I won't get into the specifics here (i.e. bore you with how I did it)

Here is a strip of 4 mounted under the rail. They put out a good bit of light, considering their small size. I don't like being able to see the tips of the LEDs, I think it is too distracting. A shield will be coming soon so you won't see the LED, just the light.

Here is the table and chairs with two of the lights visible. It creates a nice level of light for hanging out and enjoying being outside. It isn't bright enough to read by, but you won't trip over anything either.

Here is a view of the stairs with the LEDs on.

I think this is turning out pretty well, hopefully the LEDs will last a long time.