Want to improve your yard? One of the easiest ways to make it more beautiful is to add outdoor lighting. These multi-functional decorations can both help brighten your property and let you use it round-the-clock and make it even more beautiful by adding some soft, highlighting illumination. While outdoor lighting used to involve substantial work, including running bulky and often-ugly electrical runs, today’s homeowners have a number of new technologies that can safely and permanently run electricity without breaking their bank or compromising on beauty. Here are a few of the great options available to homeowners today.

LED lights are more affordable than ever before, and come in a massive range of styles, colors, and can be utilized for nearly any purposes. Perhaps the best part about them is that they are so small that they use very little electricity, while still offering a considerable amount of light.

LED lights come in many different forms, including spotlights, rope lights, or individual bulbs, meaning you can apply them almost anywhere. Looking to illuminate your deck? Run a few strands of LED bulbs across the top for a mood-setting glow. Want to highlight the beauty of your garden? Install a few lights around your prized plants. The possibilities for installing LED lights are endless.

Pools have had lights for many years, but a modern pool light offers extra options that were never available before. Turn the water in your pool or hot tub a fun color, or cycle through different colors quickly with color-changing bulbs. Additionally, modern pool lights need far less electricity to run and can offer even brighter solutions than ever before. Plus, a pool light can help you stay safe at night by making sure you see the water at all times.

Pathway lights can offer a lovely dressing for your existing paths as well as help you avoid any potential trip hazards. If kids leave toys out on the path, you can avoid these obstacles with a few simple pathway lights. Some models of pathway lights are even solar powered, gathering sunlight during the day to power themselves and then turning on at night with a subtle glow.

Security lights can help shine light in pivotal spots of your home during darkness hours, such as near front-facing windows or your front door. Many of these lights are motion-activated and require very little work to install, but can flood an area with bright light to help you spot and keep away potential intruders. Other types of security lights stay on all night long and offer you the peace of mind of knowing your home is not shrouded in darkness that encourages illegal activity.

For large projects, a simple notepad and pen are not sufficient to provide accurate and timely cost estimates to clients. The good news is that there are some pretty good estimating software programs now available that do the job. Both residential and commercial contractors can save time, money, and win more bids by providing professional job estimates. These programs also offer the ability to manage projects, bill clients, and keep track of change orders. They feature a wide range of options for any size of contractor.

TurboBid is one of the most well received and fully featured estimating programs on the market. It contains a user-friendly graphical interface and offers training courses through their website. The software can connect to national and local material supplier databases to keep pricing updated throughout the bidding process.

Change orders and revisions are simple. The software will generate automatic reports and professional presentations for clients. It also allows fine adjustment of man-hour estimations in different locations of the building. This includes ceilings. The program can account for different worker skill levels and upcoming wage increases for longer projects.

The built-in database includes tens of thousands of parts and full assemblies to allow for quick and easy estimation. The program incorporates national and local electrical code requirements to ensure bids are code compliant. In addition, it has a value engineering feature that suggests code-compliant changes to the customer’s blueprints. This can ultimately save money by adding, removing, or relocating devices.