That it can be. But you can always look at the big picture from an outsiders perspective so far. Once you commit to a path it will be more difficult and expensive to change.
You may be able start "small" (depending on all sorts of factors of course) like just lighting a porch or shed or specific feature with the end setup you are thinking of. If you like it, expand. If not... At least you have not done your whole house.
Looking to do whole house permanent lights so I don't have to go up on the ladder so much during the holidays. I'm more inclined for the flat track and led strips as shown in the first video. Seems most aesthetically pleasing to me. Then the only thing I have to think about on a yearly basis is ground stuff and what not...
From what I've read, the white diffusser over the LED track does discolor and yellow being in the sun and elements. If it's not too close to eye level, you may not notice and it might not bother you.
The other problem with LED strips is that if a section fails, it's a little tougher to repair than with and LED string where you just cut out the node/pixel and splice a new one in. They LED strings are relatively long lived but there will still be the occasional failure.
I'm starting with just the front edges of my house. Will be about 600 pixels. Plan to also do an 8'-10' mega tree. Fairly simple but a little nicer than just house lights.
PermaTrack comes in 5’ sections so I cut the lights into 30 pixel strings and soldered a connector on each end. This make it easy to take out a section if anything needs to be repaired.
I cannot put up a permanent install (I wish I could, but WAF is not there).
It has not prevented me from thinking about it and planning a large amount of it out. If I did I would put the first LED (strip or string) in easier-to-reach places and with a section of cover that is easier to get into than the rest. To the point that I thought I might keep the first one hidden from view. That way it is a "sacrificial" LED should anything go bad (surge, whether lighting or I accidentally hook the wrong power in) that could be easily replaced. Plus if I can arrange the starting points in places that are visible from inside but not outside (under eves, porch overhang, etc...) I could have them as a status indicator for the strip/string overall.
That's a smart idea! I will steal that!
Is it the case that in a surge or short that only the first section would be affected? Not the whole string/strip?
I went down the pixel rabbit hole about 5 years ago and still going strong. I live in FL and found that permanent install is not possible bc the FL sun and heat easily rots the materials.
I am much more partial to the pixel bullets rather than the pixel strips. I think they perform much better. This year I also did a custom run of pixels from China because I wanted the lights to be separated by 10 inches and 4 was the maximum available. The cost was competitive with a normal order from US pixel store and was very happy with them.
Here is a clip of some routines from this year (the first is routine from xLights around the World). Already looking forward to next year!
One of the things I did this year was setup a controller so that visitors could start, stop, and forward through the light routines. What I am hoping to do next year is set up motion controllers with HE so that the routines will turn on and off based on whether there are people watching the display. xLights is run via FP on Pi so I think it can be done. Anyone have any suggestions where to start on this project?
Heh, not only in my case is the WAF high, she wants to sit down and help plan the whole thing. She’s already staring at pics of the front of the house to see how best to do it! 
Wow that is on another level! Nice work!
Thanks. Small steps over 5 years lead to that outcome. It was not always easy in the beginning. 
Your display is awesome, it inspires me to add more props.
As far as your project the Falcon Pi Player supports MQTT so you could use that to control your sequences. I played around with this a bit using Home Assistant so I know it works. You may be able to add an MQTT broker to the same RPi that’s running FPP but since I haven’t tried this I’m not sure.
OK thanks. I’ll play around with and follow up if I have success.
Most of the props I made myself with Coro from Home Depot.
I have a lot of info I learned from my trial and error so I’m happy to help anyone who is interested. This knowledge has so far gone to waste bc no one around me has gone down the rabbit hole with me 
My WAF is high for Chistmas decorating as a whole (the inflatables are primarily hers, and she likes to plan out where entire sections will be positioned on the yard, etc...) but she is just not keen on a permanent install. Maybe it will change.
@cj_rezz:
That was one thing I saw in the "after 3 years" video, plus something I have personally experienced (hooked a 12v power supply up to a 5v pixel strip). First one fried but saved the rest, so once I cut it out and replaced the connection the rest were OK.
@McSketchy:
I love that! I bought a set of huge (4") arcade pushbuttons after Christmas so I can make a panel very similar to that. I was going to hook it up to just one small section of LED strips controlled by a Zen31 for Christmas 2021. That was before I got into all these WS2812 projects... but I think I will still do it just to give all the people that walk in our neighborhood an "interactive" piece to play with.
The interactive part was a huge huge hit with the neighborhood. Families came nightly just so that the kids could push the buttons. I will definitely be doing it every year. It was straightforward to setup with the RPi gpio pins and Falcon Player.
This is amazing 
I want it!
Download the Hubitat app
