I've been slowly working on making my back porch something that isn't just a barren wasteland of a couple random chairs and a table and a whole bunch of deck. The inside of the house has taken priority, so I've been focused on that. But just in the past several weeks as I've accomplished some major things with the interior of the house, I've begun taking a little time to focus on the deck. There is an enormous amount I still want to do, including but not limited to actually enclosing it so it's bug free and has a ceiling fan to move the air around some. We live in Tennessee so the humidity is pretty killer in the middle of the summer. But for now, a few touches here and there have at least made it a little more pleasant and comfortable. This HUGE fern was discounted to $7.99 at my grocery store because they were making room for the fall Mums. A bit hard to see, but I found these hanging items very discounted at my local Home Depot. A wider view of the deck. A fountain belonging to my housemate. It wasn't working right, and was absolutely filthy, so I spent some time tinkering with it, and no one was more surprised than me that I actually got it to work! Cleaned it up, and it makes such a lovely tinkling, gurgling sound that is surprisingly relaxing. I guess it's white noise of sorts. Anyway, I was tickled to be able to get it working and useable.
Ronni, you are creating a little bit of Eden in your new home, both inside and out. Your deck, just like your front entrance, is so inviting and lovely.
I really love the water feature. I hope your friend doesn't decide that they want it back though now it's cleaned up and working again. The bargain fern looks as though it was grown to fit in that corner of your deck doesn't it? I like what you've achieved so far and would enjoy seeing more pictures as you add to that lovely outdoor space.
To keep the fountain from clogging up again with slime and algae - Just add a little laundry detergent in the water (but only if you don't have any small pets, otherwise it will be harmful for them if they drank from it)... See this video that I had made some time back: http://youtu.be/CI0yR40uLT8 Just fast forward to 1 hour and 4 minutes, (and again at 1 hour and 8 minutes) and you'll see the effect of a little detergent in the water. It really will keep the fountain running trouble free for a very long time! Because this way there will never be any buildup of slime or algae, and neither any mosquito larvae or tadpoles.
Thanks all. I feel like I can do more with it once it's enclosed and roofed, and initially was just waiting till next season when we plan to do that, before I really did much out there. But I realized that there's no downside to doing a bit now. Some of it is disposable (the fern won't last through the winter for example) but the pots and such that I purchased to put plants in can be used when the deck is enclosed, as can the furniture, fountain etc. Eileen, the fountain belongs to my housemate. As we live in the same house, it's unlikely that he'll steal it back. We've been friends for 40 years, and our individual circumstances occurred such that it was a perfect solution for us to join forces and buy a house that is now our forever home. My kids have known him all their lives, he's godparent to most of them, and they adore him. He loves having a ready made family, adores being a Grandpa to the grandbabies, and as the kids' father isn't much in their lives at all, Lee has taken on that role with pride. Not that he assumed anything, the kids just sort of forced it on him because they think so highly of him. It's a lovely arrangement.
I love the wood of your deck Ronni. Beautiful color. & the fern is great! Your deck is really shaping up!
Thanks! When we first moved in back in October, the deck was very weathered and the wood just looked worn out. Structurally it was in decent shape, but obviously hadn't been taken care of very well. One of my kids' friends is an awesome painter, and he when he came to do our interior painting, we discussed the deck with him, and he recommended some kind of treatment for it (I have no clue what it was, Lee deals with that stuff) which came in several colors. I pushed for the red tone, in part because I like warm tones, but also because I thought it would be a wonderful contrast to all the green that surrounds the property. I was relieved that it looked as good in person as it did in my head. Here's what it looked like before Todd did the treatment on it. And the after. Pretty noticeable contrast, huh?
Cheryl that's a neighbor's deck. And it's big, but not as big as it looks in the picture. That's one of the shots of the house the realtor took before we bought it. The entire house looks HUGE, because they used a fisheye lens to make the dimensions of everything look larger. My entryway, in the relator photos, looks as big as a living room! In fact, it's about the size of a guest bathroom. I started to get an idea of how distorted the images were when I noticed that the door from the entryway leading to the upstairs bonus room looked to be about 6 feet wide! Yeah, we love the color. Lee was iffy about the choice, but I talked him into it. And he's very glad now that I did.
