Our Renovated Backyard Patio and Porch

Well, it took two years, and it cost me a couple of vacations, but the backyard patio and porch are finally done!  Yippee!  The photo below is the finished product of our year long endeavor.

Before I continue, I'll give you a little back story about this space.  This patio was done once before, for my daughter's wedding.  She got married in our home and we had the reception on the patio (see this post HERE).  But the patio and white fence didn't last long, because groundhogs kept getting under the bricks and dug tunnels.  The panels also weren't treated wood (just the posts were) so they quickly rotted.  

BEFORE

The beautiful patio space which once held my daughter's wedding ended up being a place to store and chop wood.

You can see how the fence panels just rotted away and fell over.  A fence, or barrier of some type is needed in this space because there is a four foot drop off.

During

The first thing hubby had to do was order some fill level out the patio from all the damage the groundhogs had done.  He also dug down and put chicken wire along the edge to keep the groundhogs from digging under the patio.  It's been two years, and so far, no groundhog damage, so it worked.  All the patio bricks had to be pulled up and he made the decision to flip them over and use the flat side instead of the rough side.

Once the ground was re-leveled on the left side of the patio, he had to move all that wood!

Next, he built a fire pit.  I had a hard time figuring out why he built the fire pit first when there was so much more urgent work that needed to be done, but he said he couldn't arrange the patio bricks until the fire pit was in place.

 

He used a smaller red brick to create a basketball court.

He built an extended lean-too to keep the firewood dry.

We decided we really liked the view of the woods and didn't want to block it with a solid fence, plus, it is a great cost savings not to have a solid fence, so our new fence is just beams, cross bars, and cattle fencing.  

We did have plans to paint the beams white, but we never got around to it.  I'm kinda digging the natural look anyway.

Now the old porch was just a walkout but we decided since we barbecue out here and attract so many flies when we do, that we wanted to screen in the porch.  We learned from our first screened in porch (see that porch HERE) to have the lower portion solid.  We have a cat who destroyed the screens trying to open them.  With the bottom solid he can't do that much damage.

The solid bottom is metal, white on the inside, grey on the outside.

In the front of the screen porch, he built a raised bed filled with rock to solve drainage issues.  One of the reasons the old fence rotted away was poor drainage issues so after years of watching where the water travels hubby put in drains and spouts to carry the water away.

And here is the new raised bed filled with river rock.

The inside of the porch was chipped and faded paint.

AFTER

Now after hubby did all the hard labor, it was my turn.  I gave everything a fresh coat of paint.  We decided we really liked the black stain on the other screen porch we did, so we used it here as well.  It looks so much better with the floor black instead of red.  It provides such a nice contrast to the red and white.

There are stairs leading up to the garage.  We added a screen door there too.  It use to be open and then all these leaves would constantly come down the stairs, like a wind tunnel.  It made such a mess.  Adding a door prevents that now.

Sadly, I didn't buy any new patio furniture and just used what I already had.  I didn't think it was worth it.  It costs so much money and it doesn't seem to last long, plus, we really don't use this porch much, just a few times a year.  Our house has four porches, and this one is way in the back...it takes quite a long walk to come out here to just sit a spell.  My front and south facing porches are more easily accessible so that is where we usually sit.

Hubby built this table many years ago, but he added the benches this year.  The Tiffany light was given by a friend and hanging out in my closet for years, so we hung it here for decoration.  We could plug it in if we wanted light, but were not out here late at night, so we never needed to.

The view of the new patio from the screened porch.  So far Jackson, our kitty, hasn't destroyed this one.

My husband's new basketball court.  Even the little grandchildren enjoy playing on this one, I'm sure as they grow older they will really like it.

I'm not allowed to put flowers anywhere near the basket ball court.  My side of the patio is on the right, near the fire pit.  Next year we plan to put window boxes over the upper beam and I'm gonna grow vines that hang down.  We also have plans to add narrow flower beds at the base of the fence.

From this view, you can see the walking path into the vegetable garden.  

I placed potted plants in the raised bed.  Whatever I put back here seems to grow really well, which is a shame, because hardly anyone sees these flowers.  I don't know why things grow so much better back here.  It faces east, so it gets morning sun.  I think most plants prefer to receive morning sun and afternoon shade.  Also, because it's completely fenced off, animals can't get back here to nibble...so I guess I do know why things grow better back here after all! 😂

And that's it folks! Our backyard patio and porch is finally done!  Whew! Glad that is over, now I can go on vacations again!

Have a Great Day!  Amy

Linking up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Bedroom In My Family Room?

Many of my regular readers know I've been going through my home room by room redecorating and updating them.  As I design the room, I'm not just interested in updating the decor, but making the space more practical for my new stage of life as an empty nester.

The room we chose to update this year was our family room.  It's a large, long room and it has always been an awkward space to decorate because of the length and the lack of light.  In the two "before" pictures the room is decorated for Christmas, making the room appear even more cluttered.

This is a view of the room if you just walked inside.  A large mammoth entertainment center covers one long wall (remember when these were all the rage?).  The walls are stucco with a faux painting of gold and creams.

This is a view of the room if you were standing by the Christmas tree looking back.  Again, it is very cluttered because I had to make room for a Christmas tree.  But I really want you to notice the French doors, as they play a huge role in the renovation project.

The Reason

Now, before I begin my tour of the beginning of our renovation project, let me explain my reason why we decided to do what we did.  As you know, we are empty nesters.  We have three small bedrooms on the third floor of our house with a narrow staircase leading to them.  When the children and grandchildren come home to visit, they usually stay about a week and average about three or four visits a year.  The last time they were here, we didn't get much sleep.  The crying grandchildren woke us up at night and Ashley, who doesn't like the mattress in the guest room, requested to take our bed.  So we gave up our queen size bed for Ashley (I know, what a princess).  But now my husband and I were sleeping on a full size bed and we weren't comfortable as we kept hitting each other all night.  Then Jason, Ashley's husband couldn't sleep with the baby in the master bedroom, so he went to sleep on a sofa in the living room.  Of course we then teased Ashley the next day and asked her how she was enjoying that nice, large Queen size bed all to herself while her elderly parents suffered on a full size bed.

Now there are two other reasons we wanted a bedroom on our main floor other than guests:  accessibility for old age and air conditioning.

 We were concerned as we age that we may not always want to or even be capable of climbing the stairs to the master bedroom.  It would be nice to be able to stay in our home as long as possible by making it more "old age friendly".

The last reason is that our home does not have central air.  We have one small window air conditioner that miraculously cools the entire main floor to our satisfaction, but the third floor is hot.  The lack of central air is usually not a problem for us.  We are outside more than inside during the summer and neither my husband nor I even like air conditioning.  We are able to sufficiently cool our house with box and ceiling fans.  However, every year we get about a three day heat wave, which makes sleeping upstairs very uncomfortable.  On those days we sleep on mattresses or cushions on the floor on the main level.  We thought it would be nice to have a real bed for those hot summer days.

The Problems

Now that you know why we wanted a fourth bedroom in our home,  let's discuss the problems with creating a sleeping space in a living room.  The main problem we had to deal with was how to create privacy without losing the light.  The living room is a dark balcony space that overlooks a sunroom.  There are only two windows on the east side of the house.  I did not want to just wall a portion of the room off and lose all that light.

The second problem, was losing too much space for a bed so that there wasn't enough seating space.  The bedroom portion of the room had to remain as small as possible so that our family still could gather together in this room.  I should also mention that I have three total living rooms in my house, so I'm not really giving up a large space for large gatherings.  I have a small sitting/living room open to my dining room, and a very big open sunroom that was large enough for my daughter to be married in.  I only needed enough space for the family to comfortably watch TV in this room.

The Solution

Now that you know the reasons we wanted to renovate this room, and the problems we had to overcome, here is how we solved them.

The first thing I did was to paint the walls pure white in a semi-gloss finish to brighten the room and reflect light.  The white instantly updated the room and made the woodwork pop!

After months of thinking, talking, and researching, we decided that a wall of glass that created a partition but still let light in would be best solution.  We used the existing French doors to the room.  Hubby simply took them off their hinges and made a wall with them.  Then we purchased Plexiglas and hubby made two sliding doors that operate like the popular barn doors in Farmhouse style homes.

Here is a picture of the the room still under construction.  The French doors were made into walls to section the room off.  I stained the new wood surrounding the doors black.  Later I would stain the area on the outside of the black "Early American".

My husband created a sliding barn door system all by himself.  He did not purchase one of those fancy, expensive kits.  We left the wheels and nail holes all exposed for a modern industrial look.

The clear Plexiglass slides directly behind the French doors so you can't even tell it's there when the glass is open,

As I stated earlier, the room is actually a balcony, so we wanted to close off the opening to the sunroom below for sound privacy.  We decided a bookshelf would not only be very practical but very pretty as well.

Here is a view of the Plexiglass doors closed.  Now I know most of you are wondering about privacy.  As of now, privacy is not an issue.  We have a pocket door attached to the main living space of the house that we can close anytime my husband and I want privacy.  If more privacy is ever needed, I could also put a rod behind the doors and add a curtain that I could open and close.  My husband and I have been using this room for a month now that the kids have been living with us, and we have not felt privacy to be an issue yet.  I also realize that if I ever have guests use this room, they may want more privacy so I would definitely hang drapes for guests.

A view of the room open with the doors behind the French doors.

Here you can see what the doors look like closed from inside the bedroom looking into the family room.

The Bed

For the bed, we wanted the largest bed possible without sacrificing space, so we decided on a queen mattress.  I ordered a fabric headboard from Wayfair and we attached it to the wall.  Then my husband built a wooden platform that a mattress could sit on top of.  There is plenty of space underneath the bed for under-the-bed totes.

In this picture you can see the shelving unit my husband created.  He put bead board paneling behind the shelves.  I painted the shelves a bright high gloss white.

Now I know you're anxious to see the final results but I don't know when I will be able to show them to you as just days after we almost completed the room (I still have to polyurethane the glass doors) the Apocalypse happened and my kids moved in with us.  It was actually PERFECT TIMING,  but I never really got a chance to decorate the room the way I planned so I haven't taken pictures.  However, I will say that the room is working out perfectly for our now multi-generation household.  Because there is a living space right next to the bedroom it's as if my husband and I have our own "Master Bedroom Suite".  The kids have the entire third floor of the house to themselves.  Each grandchild has their own bedroom.  We share the bathroom, kitchen, and dining room, but at night my husband and I can retire to our "suite" and have time to ourselves before bed.  It couldn't be more perfect!  

The funniest part of this whole story is that I always felt led by God to do this but I didn't really know why other than the reasons listed in the beginning of this post.  Every time I would tell people I was putting a bedroom in my living room they looked at me as if I were nuts...including my own kids!  I would reassure them that we would make it look spectacular and not weird, but no one believed us.  So far I only had one friend and my kids see the room since the pandemic occurred, and everyone now agrees it's the coolest thing ever.  Before the room looked very dated.  Now it looks hip and cool, like a New York City loft;  and it's not even decorated yet, plus we still have some of our old furniture!  I was planning on carpeting over the tile, and buying new decor and furniture, but now that is all on-hold until we see what the future holds.  For now, the room is perfect as it is!

If you really want to see "After" pictures without it being completely finished just let me know in the comments and I will post a few current shots.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!