Last year I was in a bit of a funk, and decided I needed an “easy win” somewhere – ANYWHERE. My house has been described as a “mini castle” due to the exterior being made of stone and cedar siding, which is why I bought it in the first place (I kinda have this thing with medieval stuff: castles, dragons, knights, etc.)
Anyways, I had not done anything to the house since I bought it, and so I figured maybe getting out in the yard and touching up the landscape would be a fun way to get out the funk I found myself in, so I headed over to everyone’s favorite online store, Amazon, to have a look around.
I have some familiarity with solar lights, but the ones I’ve bought in the past have been those cheap things you find at the dollar store that break as soon as a ladybug lands on them, or they stop working after a week or so. So, I started out pretty negatively biased when it came to solar powered anything, much less lights.
I found some flickering torch lights, and they weren’t that expensive (12 for about $45, so less than $4 each) so I figured it was worth a shot. When they arrived, I put them in the sun for the rest of the afternoon, and when it started getting dark I put them up. To my surprise, they actually looked like little flickering torches from the road! But they were also a bit smaller than I liked (3 inches in diameter with a 2 foot stake), so I went looking for some bigger ones and found some that are about 5 inches in diameter and the stake is three pieces which can put them almost 4 feet off the ground. While they are more expensive (about $14 each), they were definitely worth it as they put out quite a bit more light, making them much easier to see from the road.
After a couple of weeks, they were still burning bright late into the night (after a sunny day, they would stay on until after midnight), so I bought several more sets of them, and ran across some fairy lights that would look great to highlight bushes and other features in the yard, but I couldn’t figure out which ones to get, the clear ones, or the frosted ones, so I got a pack of each. And to be honest, you couldn’t really tell a difference from a distance, but they added a lot of character, so I bought some for the backyard as well. You can even get them in a pack with both warm and cool colors, which you CAN tell a difference in from a distance.
At this point, I figured my front yard was looking pretty dang good, and I needed to give some attention to my backyard area as well, since that is where everyone tends to hang out anyways. So… back to Amazon I went, only this time I was looking for something more “medieval”, and found some really cool lanterns that come with a ring to hang them on stuff, and a gator clip that you could clip them on with.
However, they didn’t have the “torch” feel, so I found some solar lights that you can mount with screws. So I went a bit crazy on those, and put them all around my back deck, and event mounted some to the side of the house and the entry arch to the back deck area. They were more expensive, and only shine through one side since they are mounted, but they put out a lot more light and the ambiance is amazing. The lanterns I moved to the balcony railing since they could be clipped onto the rails fairly easily, so we could enjoy the flickering ambiance from either the deck or the balcony above it.
Needless to say, I have been pleasantly surprised at the performance, as they are still going strong a year later and everyone has commented on how nice they look. Of course, the best feeling is seeing people driving by slow down and take pictures. I even bought them as Christmas gifts this past Christmas.