Freestone County, on the third-largest inland lake in Texas, and a long way from anyone who could fix it on a Tuesday.
Streetman is a small town in Freestone County, on the Navarro line, and the reason we are down there is the water. Richland Chambers Reservoir is the third-largest inland lake in Texas, with something like three hundred and thirty miles of shoreline, and the subdivisions around this end of it — Admiral Shores, Southpoint, April Cove, The Wilderness, Southside Shores — are gated, built to minimum house sizes and served by community ramps.
Two things about a lake property change how it should be lit, and neither has much to do with design taste. The first is the water itself. The second is that nobody is there on a Tuesday in February.
On a house somebody lives in daily, a fixture going out is noticed the same week. On a lake house it is noticed on the next visit, which might be a month later, and by then whatever caused it has had a month to make itself worse. A transformer running hot, a flooded connection, a run cut by somebody's post-hole digger — all of it goes unobserved.
That changes what is worth specifying:
The same logic argues for getting the install right rather than cheap. We are ninety-odd miles away; a second visit to fix a first visit costs us both.
Still water at night is a mirror, and that is the single most useful fact about lighting a lake lot. Anything lit near the shoreline appears twice, once on the bank and once inverted below it, and a plan that ignores that wastes half of what it could get for free.
The practical rules are short. Keep the fixtures themselves out of the view across the water, because a visible source destroys the reflection and reads from the far bank as a glare spot. Light the trunks and the underside of the canopy at the water's edge rather than floodlighting the lawn, since those are what the surface picks up. And treat the dock as circulation rather than decoration: low, shielded, aimed at the boards, enough to walk and tie up by without blinding anyone coming in.
Wind is the other factor. There is nothing between an open reservoir and the garden, so anything mounted at height takes more movement than it would on a sheltered lot — mounts go on sound structural wood, close in, with slack left in the cable.
Streetman is outside the five core counties by a long way. We travel for it, and we have the client letters from down there to show for it — one of the letters on the reviews page is from a Streetman client.
Travel work is run differently, deliberately. The design visit establishes the whole property in one trip rather than several; materials are staged so the crew arrives with everything the plan needs, including the spares; and the night-set happens on the same mobilisation rather than being deferred to a return journey. It is the same way the Arizona work is handled, on a shorter drive.
Todd still comes himself, the design visit is still free, and the price is still fixed and written before anything starts.
We have not photographed a Streetman installation yet, so every photograph below is from Corinth and the Metroplex — the nearest documented work, on the same ground and the same kind of property. Each one is captioned with the town it was actually taken in. All are TC Lighting installations, shot after dark on the property. Click any of them to see it full screen.
The full gallery is grouped by town, and the reviews page carries thirty-one client letters in full. If you are in Streetman and want your property to be the first photograph on this page, the design visit is free.
One of the thirty-one letters on the reviews page was written by a Streetman client, printed word for word as it was sent to Todd Cormier. The two below are from nearby towns, each marked with where it came from.
“Our lake house property needed significant exterior lighting enhancement. The original lighting had long ago ceased to function reliably. Low-voltage and low-tech from the outset, the system was twenty years old and underwhelming from the start. TC Lighting was completing a project at a neighboring property and was highly recommended…”
“I have worked with Todd for over 20 years. After doing our original landscape lighting project, I knew for our new home, he would be the person to take it to the next level. His artistic ability is second to none when making your lighting project spectacular. Todd is honest and very reliable. I have no hesitation in recommending him.”
“March 2019 was the first time I used TC lighting and met the owner Todd Cormier. I interviewed a number of lighting companies over a two week period and decided to use TC Lighting as I felt Todd was truly a lighting architect and really understood what we were looking for…”
Freestone County, on the Navarro line, at the south end of Richland Chambers Reservoir. Free on-site design visit, and Todd comes out himself.
Streetman, TX · inside the TC Lighting service area · free on-site design visit
Landscape lighting is the bulk of the work, but it is not all of it. Every service below is available on a Streetman property, from the same crew and the same licensed Texas electrical contractor.
Design and installation — uplighting, moonlighting, path and specimen work.
Read more →Seasonal install, maintained through the season, taken down and stored.
Read more →Govee-type colour-changing track set into the eave line. Invisible by day.
Read more →Halogen to LED on an existing system, keeping the runs and fixtures worth keeping.
Read more →Car parks, drives, steps, walls and seating areas, residential and commercial.
Read more →Inside work from the same licensed electrical contractor.
Read more →Cameras and doorbells fitted and wired properly.
Read more →Diagnosing and rebuilding failing systems, including ones we did not install.
Read more →Or start here: the home page for the whole picture, about Todd Cormier for who turns up, the photo gallery for the work itself, reviews for what clients say, and contact to reach us directly.
Yes. Streetman is outside the five core counties and we travel for it; one of the client letters on the reviews page was written by a Streetman client. The journey is built into how the job is run rather than into a surprise on the invoice.
It changes what is worth specifying. A fault on a lake house is noticed on the next visit rather than the same week, so the system is built with transformer headroom, separate legs so one failure does not darken everything, and fittings chosen for a damp position rather than for price.
Use the reflection. Still water doubles anything lit near the shoreline, so light the trunks and the underside of the canopy at the water's edge and keep the fixtures themselves out of the view across the lake. A visible source kills the reflection and glares from the far bank.
Yes, and it should be treated as circulation rather than decoration -- low, shielded and aimed at the boards, bright enough to walk and tie up by without blinding anyone coming in off the water.
It is a real consideration. There is nothing between an open reservoir and the garden, so anything mounted at height sees more movement than it would on a sheltered lot. Mounts go on sound structural wood close to the trunk, with slack left in the cable.
Four fields, about fifteen seconds. Send the address and what you are hoping to light. Todd walks the property himself, in daylight, and you get a written plan with a fixed price and dates before any work begins.
Prefer to talk? Call (972) 345-1180.