If there’s one factor we’ve discovered about residing right here, it’s that we do a ton of residing outdoors. Between every at-home studying break the children are on the market working round, we make s’mores at our fireplace pit each week or so, we sit on our entrance porch and watch the neighborhood canines go by, and we regularly eat or hang around on the second-floor deck (we even work on our laptops up there on particularly good days – which is the place I’m scripting this submit proper now).
We are able to actually really feel the home working further arduous for us due to the placement/local weather (good climate undoubtedly encourages us to be outdoors rather a lot), but additionally as a consequence of having so many nice out of doors areas for us to get pleasure from (we had no concept how superior an upstairs deck could be, however boy will we admire having it!).
One other fairly lucky incidence is that quite a lot of these out of doors areas simply wanted one or two easy updates to go from “issues we used to stroll by” to “a spot that will get used every single day.” Like this lined porch…
You final noticed it on this submit about our home’s exterior updates (there’s additionally this newer exterior submit) – and it sat just about unused for the final 8 months till we realized it was the right spot to hold a big hanging tent that we received for the children for the vacations.
Because it’s proper off of our bed room, our plan is to finally convert a few of that lined porch into an ensuite lavatory – however since sharing a toilet with the children has been a lot much less of a giant deal than we anticipated, we actually don’t have any urgency to start out a serious reno like that. We’d a lot reasonably work on including a pool & slightly indifferent visitor studio first (we’ve utilized for the pool allow however it’s fairly sluggish going). So creating a spot the place the children can lounge round, learn books, colour, and simply have some chill time appears like an ideal “for now” use for that lined porch. Particularly since we’ve about 56 different timber we will use to hold the tent after this lined porch is now not out there 😉
However first… the wooden ground had seen higher days. It had been painted the identical white colour as the home by our contractor again in April (our greatest guess is that it received some drips on it and since he thought we’d be turning it into a toilet quickly he simply mentioned “eh, paint the entire thing white for now”). However white decking isn’t the perfect for hiding leaf stains & dust and all of the stuff that finally ends up in your toes or your flipflops, as you’ll be able to see under:
Due to our stair runner mission, we had some inside/exterior porch & ground paint already readily available. And we thought a medium grey tone could be simply the factor to freshen this space up without spending a dime in a day. I don’t have photographs of our prep work, however all we did was blow all of the unfastened leaves & pine needles off the deck, after which we stress washed it to get it as clear as potential and let it absolutely dry. As you’ll be able to see on this picture under, there was nonetheless a ton of discoloration and marking that didn’t carry off…
… however fortunately the porch & ground paint lined all of it proper up. As for the paint specifics, we selected this Porch & Floor Enamel that was really useful by the professional on the paint retailer for our stair runner mission, and the colour is grey however it’s a pleasant heat one (Requisite Grey by Sherwin-Williams – you may as well see the way it reads inside on our stairs right here).
Ta daaaaaa. So a lot better. It’s humorous how a lot darker it appears above than under, however in individual it undoubtedly appears considerably darker than when the decking was the identical white colour as the home. We hope this Requisite Grey colour holds up nicely, however the great thing about this replace is that it simply took a day, so if this finally ends up staining and we wish to go even darker with the colour down the road, we now know that it’s supremely straightforward to do. Actually, this complete replace took underneath 3 hours whole (between prep, paint, and hanging the tent).
That is the view from the facet window within the kitchen. Our beloved inexperienced fence is the actual MVP of our out of doors upgrades. Extra on that, our new-ish firepit space, and a few landscaping that we added across the fence quickly! Observe: in the event you’re questioning concerning the fence colour, it’s Halcyon Inexperienced by Sherwin Williams, and you may hear extra concerning the constructing of the fence right here.
As for the tent, that is the one we got, and it’s large! It’s 60″ broad and has a weight capability of 450lbs, so it’s primarily like a double hammock the place you’ll be able to lay in any path (in truth each children are laying in it within the picture under). The good factor about this versus a double hammock is that it’s extra secure (can’t actually tip this very simply) – and also you don’t roll in the direction of the center or something – every child can have a spot with out feeling like they’re drifting right into a crack within the center.
Our youngsters use it to hang around and browse, colour, do exercise books, simply play some imaginary recreation that includes it as their “automobile” or “home.” They’ve even tried to play board video games inside and to “have a daytime sleepover” (have I discussed they actually like being on this hanging tent?). It’s a pleasant counterpart to their webbed tree swing (which is for wild & loopy swinging within the facet yard – you’ll be able to see that on this submit). I’ve additionally laid on this hanging tent within the night after s’mores. It’s good.
As for the way we hung it, we used one of these straps (the opposite one which comes within the set is what we used to hold the webbed tree swing). All of it feels good and safe – and was tremendous straightforward to hold (the tree swing that we hung over a department this fashion was simply as easy).
The hanging tent itself is a type of thick semi-translucent cloth (it’s a lot stronger than a sheer curtain and even mesh). You’re feeling cocooned inside, however it’s not like a darkish gap. They will simply learn and see issues nicely inside, but additionally really feel prefer it’s their very own little world.
Oh and it has a cup holder, which you’ll be able to see within the image under. That was John’s favourite half when he climbed in (he and I took it for a spin to verify it wouldn’t come crashing down, and he was downright wowed by the cup holder).
In order that’s the easy however very useful little improve this previously unused lined porch acquired over the vacations.
And sure our Christmas tree continues to be up. Are you able to inform we like an ambient glow by the variety of string lights that we’ve outdoors year-round?
Oh and I simply discovered this earlier than picture taken from virtually the very same angle from final February after we first laid eyes on this home. Isn’t it loopy what a number of paint (and ditching that previous rickety staircase) can do?!
If you happen to’d wish to learn extra about our home’s evolution during the last 8 months, this archive is all about our Florida home – and it covers each single change, listed chronologically for anybody who needs a deeper dive. And in the event you’re interested by how majorly downsizing has met and exceeded our expectations (together with among the largest challenges we’ve encountered alongside the way in which) this submit has all these particulars.
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