"Easy button" easy.

"That was easy."

We installed low-voltage landscape lighting in our backyard one night last week. My verdict: it is the easiest home improvement project a homeowner can do. Hands-down. Chris and I have done so many projects and learned so much that not much goes over our heads anymore. (Both of our dads also happen to be quite handy, which helps.) But I really think anyone can do this, and the payoff/reward is so great!

Thankfully Home Depot was offering one year no payments over the holiday weekend....sweet.

The kit was straightforward. We bought the Malibu 15-piece metal lighting kit with a 300-watt transformer. The kit had 10 ballard lights for general lighting and 5 uplights for trees/shrubs. I pulled all the lights out of the box, installed the bulbs (15-20 watts each), read the instructions and ended up having to pick up a couple things at OSH -- concrete screws so we could mount the transformer to the stucco, and a covered outdoor outlet box, per electrical code, since our backyard lacked one. Imagine that.

The only mishap is that we ran out of low voltage 12-gauge wire about exactly half way through the backyard and had to make a quick trip to Lowe's to buy another 100 feet and outdoor wire nuts to connect to the existing kit. Including installing the covered outlet box, transformer, running the wire/cable, and hooking in the lights, the entire project (minus shopping trips) took about an hour. What a world of difference it made too...! Check out the picture I snapped after dark.
And here's a picture of the lights after a rain...

The only issue is that the lights that are connected after the wire nut/extra 100 feet are dimmer than the lights directly connected to the transformer. I read that could happen -- the farther you get from the transformer, the harder it is because the voltage drops lower, but Malibu says it shouldn't happen. Hmm. I used the same gauge wire for the extra connection too. I'll have to look into it.

I think we'll do something similar in the front yard, lighting-wise. I think I might actually break down an buy some of those "cute little solar lights" for the veggie bed garden on the south side of the house. Have I not ranted about those on here before? Oh gosh. A new post.