Porch Clean-up

Here are the long promised new pictures of our screen porch. I spent about an hour and a half cleaning and reorganizing a couple of Saturdays ago. This past weekend, I also finally got around to adding the tie-backs which really cleaned things up and keeps the curtains from blowing all over the place.

I re-arranged the lounge end of the porch to take advantage of any breeze coming through, and for a better view of the street. I'm sure Handy Hubby can now picture a television hanging on the side wall. Ummmm...no.

  

The centerpiece of above was a HomeGoods clearance rack purchase. I think it was $9.00 or something. I stuck the candle in it and the placemat was from Pier 1 a few years ago.

My mom picked this bird house up at a yard sale. Not sure what she paid for it but I don't think it was much (if anything). My parents are semi-professional yard sale negotiators. Case in point - My dad recently bought a Bose speaker system for less than $20 which worked perfectly and included all of the pieces (the seller even called my dad after finding the one missing cable!). I never find deals like that.

Anyway, the birdie vacation house is currently hanging out under our portable drink cooler which doubles as a buffet when we are eating out there, and triples as storage for placemats.

These pictures were all taken right after we finished eating dinner which we try to do as many nights as possible in the summer. I was going to take my son's booster seat out before taking the pictures but I decided to keep it real for you. This is a spare booster that we keep on the porch. Makes eating outside so much  more convenient which means we do it more often which is why we have a porch to begin with!


Here's the old layout in case you're curious about the change. It looks a bit larger in the current arrangement I think but it's still a small porch.

Of course, doing the work on the porch only makes me realize what bad condition it is in compared to the rest of our house. I suspect there is some significant termite damage but we have reinforced the main posts with additional 2x4s a few years ago so there's no worry about the roof falling in. Hopefully.

Sources: Wicker furniture - Sears; coffee table - hand-me-down; lanterns - HomeGoods; rugs - Target; dining chairs - Pier 1; table - World Market (long ago); pillows - Restoration Hardware (stripes); chair cushions - Home Depot; chippy trunk - used (obviously); cooler on wheels - Kohls; curtains - Ikea (more here)

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