Skip to main content

Little Redo: Front Porch

 


I am not a gardener. I love gardens. Greenery, drooping trees, beautiful flowers. Being among nature is one of my favorite things, but beauty in my own outdoor space is not something I can achieve. We had been in our town home a year before realizing how badly our front landscaping could use some work. 

With all the help from my husband we made it beautiful. One bush got ripped completely out, the other got trimmed. We removed all the orange, sun faded mulch, laid landscaping fabric and buried garden edging. When that was completed, we planted the flowers my husband pick up at our local nursery (not sure the kind) and spread my choice of black mulch


The following summer I moved our rocking chair to the porch. My daughter selected a parsley plant when we went to Walmart, so we got a little side table from Amazon (found here) to set it on. Just a nice little spot to enjoy some quiet time.



I opted to spray paint out rocking chair white. Then lightly sandpaper spots to make it look worn.

I used Rust-oleum 2x Ultra Cover Paint + Primer. I did not do any sanding before hand.


It was exactly what I wanted for the space.


We also had our house and our cement power washed. For a 2-story, end unit townhome this cost us $600. More than we would have liked to pay, but we had no time to do it ourselves. Additionally, the company is veteran owned and the very best in our area.



Last step to finishing the porch was getting rid of the number stickers that were original to the house. I did a screen shot of each number from Amazon and made a collage. This way I could really see what I liked. For me the second set was a clear winner (found here). (The first numbers can be found here.)


This was the perfect site to see coming home everyday. Turns out the while flowers came back every year. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Shared Bedroom and Personal Space

Our three older children are only a little over a year apart, so they wanted to share a bedroom (even when space allowed them not to). Then we got to the age where it was clear our son needed his own room. The need coincidentally coincided with a time when we did not have a room. That's when we bought our townhouse. The girls still shared a room. A few years in, when we asked what each child would like to make the house more enjoyable for them, our oldest daughter said her own room. We were unable to accommodate this request. However, when I asked why, she said she wanted a place to have some time for herself. That was a request I could make work. We started with cleaning the girl's room. Clothes were first. We did this Marie Kondo style by pulling everything out and putting the items on our kitchen table so the girls could understand the volume of what they had. Until now, the girls shared clothes as they were the same size and interested in the same style. My oldest daughter

Little Redo: Art Space

When we asked our youngest daughter what she would choose to make the house more enjoyable, she said she would redo her Art Space. We have a landing space at the top of the steps. The desk had been deemed the homework space, but our daughter and her Art slowly took over. Considering that no one does their homework in this spot, Ira’s art space was born. Our kids hang out in the landing space, so we try to have them reset it once a week. Everything returns to its proper home, along with dusting and vacuuming. If they stay on top of it, it never gets too bad. I took a trip to Target and the Dollar Tree. I was open to whatever they had available but knew I needed some small and paper-size bins. She made this super cute sign that I used as inspiration for a larger sign I made for the wall. I first pulled everything from the area, got rid of what we didn’t need, and then put it back in its new home.   Plastic cups in long bins keep the crayons separated by color family. Copic markers st

Little Redo: Son's Room

After living in our townhome for almost 3 years, we discussed if we wanted something with more room, or to invest in our current home. We opted to invest. When it was time to work on the kids' rooms, we asked them to pick any one thing for their space. Our oldest son, 10 at the time, requested a desk. He said he would like a space to sit other than his bed, to draw, and to do homework. We looked together on Amazon. He wanted something minimal, but with an upper shelf. It was up to me to think through the coordination, such as size, and a way to hide cords.  We decided on the VIPEK Computer Desk 42 Inch Study Writing Desk PC Laptop Table for Home Office, School Student Desk with Hutch & Storage Shelves, Corner Table for Small Space Bedroom, Easy Assemble, Oak . This desk no longer is available, but if we had to pick now, we would do the Aquzee Computer Desk with Hutch & Bookshelf, Home Office Desk with Space Saving Design, Metal Legs Industrial Table with Upper Storage Shel