Man's Hobby Turns into Passion for Lights

HOUSTON - It's Alice in Wonderland meets conservative Houston, Texas. In an upscale neighborhood near memorial park, on a street lined with multimillion dollar homes, one house definitely stands out- at least at night.

Shades of red, blue, purple, and well, just about every color you can think of, dance and dart around Patrick Woerner's front yard. Inside, on the second level of his 10 thousand square foot home, the retired mortgage broker has turned his wife's room for wrapping gifts into a command center for his nightly light show.

"This is the light system engine," said Woerner, who uses a laptop to control 16 million different colors.

Woerner's passion for LED lights started 4 years ago.

As a volunteer at a summer camp for kids with HIV, Woerner noticed they loved to play with toy lights.

He decided to create a light show at camp.

It's a show he decided he needed at home, too, so starting with just a few LED's from a Las Vegas lighting company, Woerner got to wiring.

"As far as I know, I was the first residential application," he said.

Little by little, Woerner started building his dream, installing lights on the ground, in trees and inside his home.

"I think honestly if he had come to me and said, ‘I'm gonna do this,’ I would've said 'You're out of your mind. What's this gonna cost?'" said his wife, Emma Jacobs.

Expensive? Yes.

But Woerner cut down on cost by installing it all on his own, and he won over his wife.

"He created this whole system, and to be honest with you, I've fallen in love with it," she said.

Jacobs' other love is raising money for charities.

After beating breast cancer several years ago, she created the Emma Jacobs Breast Cancer Foundation. Her husband's lights help her raise money.

"For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we do pink," Woerner said.

Most nights, it's not about fundraising or holidays. It's just about having fun, though Jacobs has drawn a line.

"At Christmas, my husband puts up Christmas lights too," she said. "I think it's overkill."

So what do the rest of the homeowners living in multimillion-dollar homes here think?

"I haven’t had any complaints, and I have neighbors who I know like it," said Woerner. "But I know there's plenty who probably don’t like it."