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This post was sponsored by PPL Electric Utilities as part of their Project Envolve Ambassador program. All opinions expressed in my post are my own.
As we raise our family in my childhood home, we are constantly upgrading, re-doing, fixing and putting our own style on various parts of the property. As a kid I heard my mom mention MANY times that she wished our big windows upstairs were doors that led to a 2nd story balcony. I guess her daydreaming made an impression on me because when we did our big kitchen renovation a few years ago, we got serious about making that balcony a reality. It certainly didn’t happen overnight. In fact, when we built the kitchen addition, we also had new windows, siding and a new roof put on the original house. We knew that this was the perfect time to rip out those upstairs windows and put in a door. So we had a door… and that’s ALL we had for the 4 years that followed. The kitchen project was such a massive undertaking, it took much of our home budget for a good while. We waited and saved our pennies and then last year Bob built a very lovely wooden deck.
When this spring rolled around, our goal was to get some (if not all) of the decking and railings that were part of the kitchen project painted, including this new 2nd floor balcony deck. We picked our colors and Bob did a test run on the railing by the basement stairs. We loved the look and decided to use the same color combo on all of our decking and railings.
So we knew that we would paint our new upper deck. We figured that we would get an outdoor carpet and maybe some furniture. Then our attention turned to lighting. We knew that there were three major things to take into consideration when it came to illuminating our deck:
1. We wanted to choose an energy efficient light source for all deck lighting to save some money on our electric bill.
2. Typically we sit on the deck at night after the kids have gone to bed. We wanted subtle lighting on the deck. Our goal was for some ambient lighting that was bright enough to see any food or drink we might have on the table, but subtle enough to not take away from the night sky.
3. We use the steps on our deck to get to our hot tub, which we almost always enjoy after sundown. The steps are very dark and I often worried that I might trip and fall down. We wanted to place solar lights on the posts to illuminate the steps on even the darkest of nights.
Painting took a bit longer than we had hoped, since summers here in PA are known for their heat, humidity and with that, frequent heavy thunderstorms and downpours. Bob had to pay close attention to the weather forecast because he couldn’t paint before it was supposed to rain, as the rain would wash away all of his hard work. Likewise, if it rained, he had to wait until the sun dried out the wooden boards before they could be painted.
Once the deck boards and railings were all painted and dried, it was time to install the solar lights. We chose two decorative lights for the deck itself – near the spot where we planned to place a small table. On the posts along the stairway, we used a different style light – one that projects the light down so we can see where we are stepping.
We picked up an outdoor rug, a potted plant and a lovely bistro set that just so happens to be an exact match style and color-wise to our patio furniture set down below the balcony.
TIP: A great way to save some money on patio furniture is to always ask a manager if you can purchase the store’s floor model at a discount. We have lucked out doing this TWICE now – both times it was later in the summer season and the set that we wanted to buy was totally out of stock. The floor model was the only set that remained. This time we saved more than 30% on the set because in addition to being the floor model, the table had a few random scratches on it.
Here is the finished look. I love it so much!
Not only will this make a great little oasis for us to escape to, I am so happy that we turned to solar lights for our illumination needs. There are no switches to remember turning on or off and we won’t feel a pinch on our electric bill at all.
As for the lights at night? They look awesome!
Tell me – What are some ways that your family saves some energy (and some money on that electric bill) during the summer months? A couple other things that top our list include using the grill for several meals each week and our pool pump runs on a timer!
PPL Electric Utilities offers tools, tips and energy efficiency programs to help customers save. Visit pplelectric.com/savings for more information.
Energy Efficient Solar Lighting
