New Solar Lights

 You guys, I finally ordered some solar lights to light up our front walkway! OneFrugalChick on Instagram posted a deal for Amazon for these solar lights and I was able to snag them for only $13 a 6-pack! I ended up needing 18 lights total so buying three packs worked out perfectly. Although I wish they were more of a white light instead of yellow I am thrilled with how they look for such a cheap price! I had been previously looking at Walmart for clearances out lights but they still weren't getting clearanced out. I was so happy to find these because I knew I wanted to get some in the garden before summer ends. 

The other night I noticed that the lights were starting to turn on one by one at twilight (ayo Twilight fans) so I headed outside to snap some pictures. You can see that some of the lights haven't turned on yet but I love the gentle glow they give off!

Also, the walkway is looking great! A round of applause for Tim on that one!

I think at this point I was just waiting for two or three lights to turn on. They are just enough to give off light if you are coming up our walkway. I'm picturing pumpkins lining the walkway this fall, leading kids up to the door for Halloween. If there is Halloween this year, who knows at this point!

One more light to go! If you head to my instagram (balancingonmytoes) in my home story I have a little video of walking down the walkway towards the house. You can hear the nighttime sounds that we get here in Rhode Island. I love the sound of summer nights here, it's so peaceful with all the wildlife sounds. I love where I live!

When all the lights were finally on I was so happy! It just looks so nice!

These lights are plastic, not glass. I know that may make them "cheaper" but I personally like that they can get bumped around and knocked over and aren't going to shatter. Mostly I prefer things that aren't too precious.  I worry less about Sophie running around like a bull in a china shop when things aren't breakable.

Look at that precious little face in the window! Also, this just reminds me of how far we've come. There were very few gardens, no walkway, no evergreens. We've come so far in such a short time!

Just ignore my heart eyes over here. I'm a little obsessed.

The design on these lights is so pretty too. Look at the glow it sends across the walkway. 

Okay, that's all for my new solar lights! What sort of outdoor lighting do you have at your house? I would love to add some solar lights in the backyard too, but we are still working on our plans for the backyard so we will see what we end up with back there. Tim recently finished part of a project he's been working on and it looks so good, I cannot wait to share it with you all.

Also, I am going to work on my plans for this front garden for next year....and what other plants and plans I have for the yard next spring. Oh, the projects just keep on coming to me!

DIY House Projects: Completed Front Walkway

Today I'm sharing our completed front walkway! I can't stop gushing about my husband. I am in awe with the amazing job he did!! I never knew he was so talented at home projects but this walkway is just incredible. 

Remember where we started?

It was just an empty lawn and when we stepped off the front steps it was muddy and gross.

Then we had the moat...

Now, we have this......

Isn't it beautiful?!

I love the pattern and cannot believe what a great job he did!

He did such an amazing job and I'm so proud to have an amazing and talented husband.

My plan is to create gardens to surround this walkway with gardens and I can't wait to get this next part of the project done!

Also, do you see that little fluff ball in the window? :)

What do you think of the walkway? Have you ever built something like this before?

DIY House Projects: Walkway Progress

After an unintentional week off, I'm back! Guys, this is the beginning of week 9 of me working from home. I can't believe that I've actually been working from home all this time, I never imagined. I did assume I would get so much done if I worked from home each day but I never thought I wouldn't be able to walk outside without a dog attached to me. Leaving her inside means barking, yelping and pawing at the windows so unfortunately if Tim isn't home I'm not able to get outside to get any outside work done. On the weekends Tim has been working on the walkway so I wanted to share the progress with you guys today!

Please note that I am not able to help Tim with this project because he is a perfectionist and I have no patience. If I did the walkway it would come out much less perfect because I wouldn't be taking the time to make things perfect. Lucky for me with this perfectionist husband of mine it will look perfect :)

Tim spent this past Saturday getting all the stakes in and measuring out where the walkway should line up. He wanted to make sure that the walkway sloped away from the house so we won't get any water pooling near the house. 

That perfectionist hubby of mine spent so much time leveling everything out and making sure all his measurements were perfect. I would've probably just said that it looks good and been done with it, which is why I'm not helping :)

Once everything was all lined up it was time to fill in the gravel!

Sophie and I supervised the process. Tim was seriously kicking butt this past weekend!

Progress with the gravel!

We borrowed the tool seen above from my parents and it really packs everything in. See the difference between the left side and the right side?

This was almost the end point!

After all the gravel is in then Tim will lay the pavers and use sand to keep them in place. I am so excited we are getting to the end point of this walkway project and I'm sure that Tim is ecstatic as well but he's also probably wondering what is next for him :)

Sophie is checking out what her dad is doing! Also this is why I have to keep her on a leash while we are doing anything because she will stick her face right in whatever you are doing, making a project like this difficult!

But it doesn't stop her from watching like a true fan!

Now are you ready for what the walkway looks like as of today?

....

The crushed gravel is in!! 

Guys. I'm pretty sure the next time I update you it will be completed! I will be sharing before and after pictures of how this changes our front yard, I'm so excited!

Once the walkway is complete, I plan on making the front garden surround them. If you look at the picture above I am going to pull the garden all the way up to the walkway and plan on getting boxwoods to line the walkway on both sides. The garden that you can see in the back I plan to wrap all the way around the walkway. I also want to get solar lights for the sides of the walkway.

I can just picture mini pumpkins lining the walkway during fall :)

So those are the plans! Do you have any ideas that I haven't mentioned? I would love to hear them!

The Start Of Our Front Walkway

Good morning everyone! We lucked out and never lost power over here, although many of our fellow Rhode Islanders weren't quite so lucky. Today I wanted to share the start of our front walkway project.

I had a ton of "big ideas" when it came to the front walkway but honestly it mostly came down to price! We ended up choosing gray pavers for the material. Our house is gray so I thought that the gray pavers would be the best choice.

Lucky for us Lowe's had a sale on gray pavers!

I was able to order them online for 60% off! When making a huge home project purchase like this I always like to look for a sale. I knew we would be spending a big chunk of money but saving 60% off a big chunk of money makes my deal loving heart so so happy. So 1000 pavers later we had two pallets sitting outside ready to go!

Tim and I spent some time laying out rope to see where we wanted the walkway to lay.

We plan on bringing the gardens to wrap around the walkway so hopefully it will look really nice once we finish, make the gardens look nice, and get some nice looking grass in here!

Now here we go with the before pictures:

Now we were able to get started laying the pavers.

I highly recommend laying out a row or two of pavers so you can see the flow of the walkway. Sophie was very interested in what was happening. 

We kept going back and forth between a curved edge and a flat edge. You will have to come back to see what we decide!

This past Saturday was digging day! We attempted to both dig with Sophie around and......

it wasn't working. Sophie was interested in what we were doing, wanted to dig in other areas and was just crazy. So I left Tim to dig and sat with Sophie inside. Just when Tim was ready to quit, our neighbor came over to help! We are so grateful because with his help Tim was able to get the whole walkway dug out!

There are now a million other steps to complete before this walkway is done, but we are excited that this part is complete!

Sophie was thrilled to roll around in the dirt and mulch.

Poor Tim was exhausted.

But check out our moat! I kept joking in the torrential downpour on Monday that we could get some alligators and turn this into a moat.

Here's Sophie watching her dad work.

Some more pictures throughout the process. 

Now, over the past few days we haven't really been using our front steps since there is a big muddy drop at the bottom, but it makes me hopeful when I look out and see our new moat :)

Have you ever put in a walkway or another outdoor project like this?

Have a great day!