New Year's Visitors

Alex was back in Texas from the other side of the world after stopping in Hawaii to present his dissertation topic, which was approved!  Stacey and Kara joined him in Wimberley for a great little New Years visit which included this traditional stop at INOZ for lunch.  Aren't they all just beautiful?

Finishing Touches

We've been using the guest house for about a year under less-than-ideal conditions, but now several areas are truly complete and operational.  The Great Room is as decorated as it is going to get, including this fabulous elephant pillow from Steve and Martine.  Not much left to do in this except some minor caulking.

The bathroom (second and third photos) is absolutely 100 percent done now, with all of the trim, caulk, and a Longaberger basket full just about every Bert's Bees product I could find.

There is still some work left to do in the loft but hey, it is just a loft so it will just have to wait.

Let There be (outdoor) Light!

After years of experimenting with wimpy solar landscape lighting, I finally decided to get serious and do it right.  Don't get me wrong; solar can provide nice all-night lighting if you use a large collector panel on a roof and run wiring from there to a big battery to feed the lights.  But those stand-alone lights with the tiny solar collector on top just can't hack it in shady areas, during cloudy periods, or for about four months of winter.   

I started with the path from the guest house to the main house shown in the first photo.  I used Kichler path lights fitted with amazing 1 watt LED bulbs.  

For up-lights, I tried to position them for minimal light pollution and to create a sense of enclosure in the backyard. 

Since my power unit is a hefty 300 watt device made by VOLT,  I obviously could spend many years adding all the fixtures I want and then some; perhaps a few path lights along the front yard entry walk will be next.