Good Day All!

I will be completing my “Home Tour” series of blog entries with this post describing the outdoor lighting that we chose to brighten up the front of our home.  My hubby and I worked in tandem to choose and arrange said lighting; he did do all of the installing though, but, I was definitely there for moral support. 😉

The first lights that I want to tell you about are the candles in the windows.

Here in the South, many of us leave lights lit in our windows throughout the entire year; I have done this for years and years now (even in our old house before we moved here).  Old traditions tell us that the candle was often placed in the window when a member of the family was away. The lit candle was also placed in the window as a sign of good news or as a welcome to weary travelers. Candles also represented friendship and were seen as a sign of welcome to others. One of my favorite schools of thought regarding placing candles in the window was that it served as a beacon to solders who were away at war, kept ever burning so that they could find their way back home to their loved ones.  For all of these reasons, we keep candles lit in all of the front windows day and night.  We took advantage of a spiffy lighting package that our builder offered, a “Holiday Light Package”, this package provided us with an extra outlet at each window and all of those outlets lead to one switch, so when on the rare occasion that I do turn out all of the candle lights all I need to do is flip that one switch.

I’ve always loved the look of a home subtly lit at night so we went on the hunt for lighting that would highlight the different rooflines and ‘sections’ of our home.  All of these lights are on a timer, they come on at dusk and remain on for 6 hours then magically turn out all on their own. 😉 🙂

We purchased pathway lights:

And “wash” lights, that softly light parts of the front of the house:

My hubby installed wash lights up on top of the porch and on the porch itself as well:

We chose “up” lights to highlight whatever decorative flag I have on the flag stand and some of the prettier trees and shrubs in the flowerbed.                                                (I purchased the flag stand from Plow and Hearth):

We even found a flag pole with a solar light attached, that way the flag that we have flying will always be lit as well.                                                                                                 This is especially important when we have the American Flag flying, it is not supposed to be flown at night without it being lit:

Last, but not least, we have several solar lights dotted throughout the flowerbed, they change colors very slowly and subtly and add a little touch of whimsy:

The lighting is pretty throughout the entire year, but it is especially pretty right after a snowfall:

Well, there we go, with the completion of this blog entry,  you’ve now had a tour of pretty much the entire house. My hubby and I work every day to turn this house into a home, a home that will provide a warm and cozy haven to family and friends. My greatest hope is that when folks stop by that they feel welcome and like they can sit down, put their feet up, relax, and enjoy their time here in our country home.

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn