When I decided to line the roofline of the house with Smart Strings a few years ago, they were new and there weren't a lot of shared ideas of how best to install them. So this is what I did and it has worked very well and saved a ton of time at installation and tear down.
I bought a bunch of 1x2 lumber, drilled a hole about every 3 inches to stick the LED through and painted the wood to match the gutters and soffits of the house. I next added a screw-in hook near each end of the wood and installed eye-hooks into the soffits at matching spacing. I siliconed each LED into place from the rear and soldered waterproof connectors at the end of each wood section.
This allows me to hang each strip up separately (the longest are 8' and the shortest is about 3') then make the connection between each section once they are up on the house. This same system works for the gable ends of the house also. It took almost all of the 4 128 LED strings I ordered from Ray (and 4 controllers) to do the front of the house. I just zip tied the controllers (in PVC pipe) to the back of the 1x2 near the beginning of each string. You can also hide the Cat5 cable by zip tying it behind the 1x2s.
Attached are some photos showing how the system is not very obvious during the day and a couple of close photos showing the details.
Lessons learned - spring for the waterproof connectors like Ray sells. I tried male/female 1/4" push connectors and they were horrible. The only other thought I have had that would be easier is to buy the more expensive strips and just leave them mounted all year up against the house under the soffits. I think they might blend in enough to not be noticeable from the road.
