Making it Lovely » Outside

A Few Updates for the Front Porch

Making it Lovely — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:54:55 +0000

The nice weather kind of happened all at once here, and now I’m realizing that the front porch needs a little sprucing up. New pillows, a few new planters, and a wire bunny I’ve had for a while will do the trick. I’m going to spend the day out there cleaning, and also tending to some landscaping out front.

The Exterior To-Do List

Making it Lovely — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:55:37 +0000

I didn’t do much to the backyard last year. Or to the front. Really, what I mean to say is that I didn’t do anything to the exterior of the house last year. This year, it shows. The garden needs tending, the grass needs seeding, and to top it all off, we should probably paint. The garage is starting to peel pretty badly, and the house could use some attention, too.

(Not our yard! That’s Jenna Lyons’ former garden.)

I had a grand plan of things I wanted to do to the outside of our home that I put together back in 2009, two months before Eleanor was born. Allow me to quote myself: “Of course, the arrival of spring will also mean the arrival of our baby, so maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves!”

Nah, you think? Childless me was so naive.

So now, two kids and four years later, I’m reassessing. I’m copying and pasting my original exterior to-do list, below, with some clarification.

paint & repair the trim
We still need to do this.
paint the front porch and the back deck
I would miss the hand-painted rug that I did, but the porch needs to be refinished.
replace the railings for the front porch with a style more appropriate for the house
I’d still love to do this, but at least our railings are functional.
cover the sides of the front stairs (lattice?)
Yep. Actually, stucco would be a more seamless choice.
build a gate to hide the storage area under our back deck (lattice?)
Still a good idea.
replace our ugly white screen doors with simple, unobtrusive ones
I removed the front screen door entirely because I couldn’t stand it anymore, but I’ve yet to replace it.
install gutters with covers that supposedly don’t need to be cleaned
We can skip this, and continue to have our gutters cleaned seasonally.
remove the aluminum siding on the addition and stucco it to match the rest of the house
We had a couple of quotes and this is cost-prohibitive.
change the house color
It would be nice.
paint the garage to match
The garage needs to be painted either way, and of course it should match the house.
put up cute new house numbers
Yes!
maybe change the mailbox?
Maybe!
add an outlet out front and in back (there are none outside)
We did this! And now it’s broken! Yay.
add another metal sculpture in front of the house (we already have one)
Really? One is enough, Nicole.
put in some foundation plants/shrubs
I sort of did this, but more is needed.
plant a small tree (pagoda dogwood?) out front
Probably not the best idea to plant a tree too near the house.

I feel bad, looking at this list and realizing how much of this has yet to be done, but it’s expensive stuff. And the only new item I’d like to add to the list? Build a wooden fence. The neighbor’s yappy dogs used to be an annoyance. Now that we have kids and they have a more aggressive dog that wants to bite their hands off, a wooden fence would be nice.

New Outdoor Dining Table

Making it Lovely — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:30:05 +0000

Our outdoor dining table went kaput this year. It was cheap, but we thought it would last longer than four years. The wood went rotten, and one of the extensions wobbled right off. There’s a reason you’ve been seeing an increase in tablecloth usage outdoors lately.

Yesterday, I convinced a hesitant husband to pack up the kids with me and head to IKEA for a replacement. We were successful, as evidenced by the car being partitioned by a very large box.

I chose this table. It’s slightly smaller than our previous table, but there are no moving parts on it and I’m hopeful that it will hold up better. It already has a gray stain so it looks a smidge weathered, but I don’t want the dang thing to actually weather and fall apart the way the other did. Perhaps a winter storage cover is in order. Or a coat of paint. Or some sort of actual maintenance from us. (To be fair, the other table did call for restaining/sealing, and we never did it.)

I’ll have more photos later this week. We had some company for lunch and I put together a very red, white, and blue table setting. (Here’s a little sneak peek!)

The new table is solid pine. What do you think? Any tips on helping it survive Chicago’s weather? Stain it? Seal it? Find some place to store it in the winter? The legs do fold down.

First Barbecue of the Summer

Making it Lovely — Mon, 21 May 2012 17:06:31 +0000

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Yesterday for lunch, we barbecued for the first time this year. It was so good we grilled again for dinner! This was the scene.

Ah, those leaf plates. I’ve had them for years and I still love them. It was Brandon’s idea to add them to the table, and a good one at that, though somewhat surprising (because he hates them!).

We need to get out there and clean up the garden. I ignored it last year (excuse: I had a baby and a toddler), and this year things are bad out there. It is, however, much easier to overlook the garden being overgrown and overtaken by weeds if your peonies are in bloom.

A patterned tablecloth probably helps too. This is the same one I used for Eleanor’s birthday party, but I think I like it outside even better.

My family always used paper plates and plastic cups and cutlery outside, but I like to use our regular dishware. We do use plastic/melamine plates and cups sometimes (we did for dinner yesterday), but I still like those better than disposables. Plus the wind doesn’t toss a real plate like it does a paper one.

How do you set the table outside? I like to set out stacks of plates too, and let everyone help themselves, buffet-style.

Eleanor was so excited about being able to eat outside. I think we all were.

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Social Space Makeover Contest Winners

Making it Lovely — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:51:06 +0000

Thank you all for voting for your favorite finalist in the Social Space Makeover Contest! After a lot of drama in the end, and a lot of data crunching this weekend, I can officially announce Heather as the first place winner. Today, I’ll be sharing the custom design board that she has won. And after resolving some issues with the voting data, the second place actually goes to two winners: Lisa and Mary Sue. They were only six votes apart out of thousands, and in my book that’s close enough to call it a tie. They will each receive a $100 gift card to The Home Depot, courtesy of the American Express Membership Rewards program. Congratulations to all three winners!

Heather’s Winning Entry:

Help! We’ve been remodeling the inside of our home for the past 2 1/2 years but have totally neglected the outside of our home – including our front patio that has a lot of potential but is just barren and boring! When we had our daughter Zoey 10 months ago we really stopped all work on our home and now that she is getting close to walking we want to spend more time outside with her and entertaining friends and family but have no place suitable to do so (our backyard is even worse than this, with a death trap back porch!) […]

• Heather’s blog post
• Heather’s original entry

Here’s how I’d use Heather’s 150,000 Membership Rewards points to redo her front patio.

Heather and her husband, Mike, are handy and they’d like to build a custom bench for their space. They may also replace their existing firepit with something custom, but I included a ready-to-go option in case they want to go that route. They’d like to change the exterior of their house to be yellow and gray, but Heather tells me that they’re saving up for a big siding replacement job. When they’re ready, I think they should go for it and paint their door a cheery yellow, like my friend Erin Loechner did. I’d set aside $400 to use at The Home Depot for materials and paint.

I would add a sleek table out there with six colorful chairs (in a green/yellow color that isn’t a perfect match for a yellow door, but that goes well). Tubtrugs are inexpensive and perfect for corralling toys, holding drinks for a party, or even as big planters. The solar lights are the only thing in the design plan not available through points, but they’re so good for the patio that I had to include them, and then cute accessories from west elm finish off the space. And plants! I can’t advise as to what’s good for the area, but I’d be sure to use some of that Home Depot money to add some greenery out there too.

Heather is free to use her points as she wishes, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she does with her space. Congratulations again to Heather, and also to Mary Sue and Lisa! Thank you, everyone, for following along with the contest. I hope you’ve enjoyed it!

We Trimmed the Tree

Making it Lovely — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:16:20 +0000

Our Eastern Redbud is looking a little sad. And also, perhaps a little Seussian.

Three men in full protective gear came to prune that bitty little tree. Poor tree. I tried to secretly take their picture from the kitchen window, but I grabbed my camera a little too late and only got one guy as he was leaving. Hi, guy.

The arborist that came out thinks that the tree will bounce back and look fine in a couple of years. I’m just hoping it makes it through the winter.

Peonies

Making it Lovely — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:23:34 +0000

I haven’t done much to the garden since my initial effort in 2008, but it has rewarded my neglect by growing with wild abandon. It’s really not such a bad thing.

The Backyard, September 2008

The Backyard, June 2011

The peonies used to be out front. There were four of them when we moved in, but they weren’t getting enough sun so I decided to move them to the back. In the process, the four peonies accidentally became 12, but forging ahead, we planted all 12. Now, for about five days each June, my garden bursts with peonies. My favorite flower.

I would love to make some changes and additions to the yard, but that’s pretty low in my priorities right now. Enjoying the garden though, that ranks quite a bit higher.

Our Eastern Redbud is Dying

Making it Lovely — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 16:05:33 +0000

Only a third of the tree has leaves. It was a birthday present from Brandon in 2008, and I wanted to see it grow to full-size. So sad!

Brandon thinks it can be saved, but I’m less hopeful. There are deep fissures on the trunk in several places. The neighbor said that I should just chop off the dead parts and keep the rest of the tree, but I think that would look awful. No more awful than the jungle of weeds beneath the tree, but theoretically I can get rid of those. You know, if I actually had time these days to garden.

Maybe it caught some sort of tree disease from my other neighbor’s dying redbud? She has one against the fence that used to shade my egg chair.

The Backyard, 2008

It hasn’t been doing very well for the last couple of years. (The bush next to the egg chair however, that is thriving. Along with more weeds.)

The Backyard, 2011 (The egg chair's cushions are in the wash.)

Do you think we can save it? I want to replace it with a different tree as soon as possible if it’s a lost cause.

Well-Traveled Outdoor Space

Making it Lovely — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:51:32 +0000

My thoughts always turn to outdoor spaces the minute the weather starts to warm up. We’re still a little chilly here in Chicago, but it will be nice out soon enough.

I imagine this as a tucked away corner in a lush garden, up against a wall covered by plants growing in wooly pockets. The bench looks weathered and modern at the same time, and I’d use a ceramic garden stool or two as extra seating or a place to set a drink. Candles in lanterns overhead and an outdoor rug define the space and add to the traveled feeling.

Woodpecker Door Knocker

Making it Lovely — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:24:55 +0000

I hung up our new woodpecker door knocker yesterday.

Brandon’s response: “I don’t hate it.”

Score!