Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger I love the idea of doing more outdoor living - the porch swings, the fire pits, the lounge chairs, etc. And they're making some nice stuff, nowadays. But we've never been able to really utilize the few things we have bought. Is it really possible to live in your backyard like the magazines show it? Apparently a lot of people spend a lot of money building out their yards - up to and including entire outdoor living rooms. So here's a sort of stream-of-consciousness bunch of questions that I'd like some group-think on, starting with my worst bane... What I can't figure out is how you deal with the dirt and the little critters that invariably collect on the stuff. What do you do, hose it off every day and sit on a wet chair? Or do you just let it get dirty and then take a shower every time you sit in it? And it must be even worse with all this outdoor furniture that is now being produced that has those thick seat cushions and such. Do you try to do anything about the heat, or do you only go out on nice nights? If you go out in the day, do you do anything about the sun, like use a gazebo? If you go out at night, what do you do about bugs that are attracted to lights (and people)? What do you like to do when you are outside? The same stuff you so inside, or different things? Do you prepare food outside, or in the house? What kind of foods do you like outside? If you actually prepare food outside, do you have some kind of mini-kitchen outside that you use, or do you lug all the stuff from your kitchen to some outdoor workspace? If you have some kind of outdoor kitchen, how do you keep "the others" from taking up residence in your cabinets? Any other things you've observed about outdoor living would be appreciated.
Originally Posted By debtee We virtually live outside in our huge entertainment area for most of the year. It's like an extension of our house. We bought our house three years ago and have spent the last three years making it a perfect dining spot. We do live in Australia, so maybe that's a consideration, as our climate allows for this great way of living. We have mild Winters, so I would say with eating outside, there's only a few nights of the year it's a bit too chilly to eat outside. We find we sit inside to eat but always end up outside after dinner to talk with friends etc. We have a very large colourbond awning/pergola that covers the entire area so that makes a huge difference to things getting damaged in the elements. All of our garden furniture is under cover. Our 14 seat 100 year old recycled timber dining table, has not suffered at all from being outside for the last 3 years. We have an iPod set up on a speaker system for background music and lots of my country display items and antiques set amongst my plants in wooden wine barrels. I have a dresser outside to store all of my BBQ plates, serviettes and cutlery ready to go. I do have to clean this area regularly because of dust etc but I see it as another room in the house and do it with my usual cleaning chores. We have an outside vacuum cleaner to remove all the leavesand debris, so I highly recommend this to anyone that wants to create an area such as this. In mid summer the flies and mozzies are our biggest enemy in Sydney but we have installed industrial zappers up under the awning that get rid of this annoyance, they are not an eyesore, in fact they a bit hidden to the naked eye. It's amusing, they can scare the heck out of someone the first time they come over, as a big bug makes a long sizzling noise while he's frying! lol We have a big stainless steel BBQ with a built in wok burner, plumbed into the main gas line ( Barry didn't want to have to refill gas bottles all the time ) with built in cabinets, that makes it easy to prepare and cook meals outside and we find we have been using that to cook on lately, more then the inside oven. Another tip I can give for the BBQ cooking is woodfire pizza stones...they are fantastic for creating a crispy gourmet pizza! yum. 2 weeks ago we had 14 friends over to celebrate with an outside dinner party and it was fab, everyone had a great time, no one was crowded they could relax and my inside house stayed clean. I love outdoor living it's wonderful. I hope I have helped a little bit CrouchingTigger, any questions please ask.
Originally Posted By kari12177 It doesn't work for me, we have 2 huge trees that cover our deck with stuff and everything on it. Plus we have a lot of bugs. I'd rather still inside.
Originally Posted By LVBelle I want to go to debtee's house! One of the reasons why we chose this house is because of the HUGE backyard, something you don't find too often here in Vegas. Unfortunately we have no idea what to do with it. So far we just have an uncovered porch, a BBQ grill, and a whole lot of dirts and weeds. I'd love to get it nice before Jake's birthday in August but I have no idea where to start!
Originally Posted By debtee ^ Wow you have such an opportunity to create a wonderful outside area for your family LV. Just remember it all takes time, it's taken us three years to get ours perfect! When I look back at photo's from three years ago I can't believe it's the same area. Read heaps of books, watch those house make over shows for idea's and visit some garden expo's. Thanks for your kind words too! We loveeeeeeee entertaining now it's all finished!
Originally Posted By debtee I'm so silly, I forgot to mention an important addiction to our outside area. An undercover spa. It's fantastic. I wasn't really into them until we got one and now I can't imagine not having one. At the moment we have it set on a hot temp, as we are coming into our Winter and it's perfect to climb into on a cold day to warm your body and muscles. Very relaxing! Not bad, for a little snuggle with your partner either!
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<One of the reasons why we chose this house is because of the HUGE backyard, something you don't find too often here in Vegas.>> I figure you should lock the doors and stay inside from May through October. ;-) Our present house has a really nice area in back that we use more than we've used the decks etc. at our previous homes. We still don't use it a great deal. There are not a huge number of days in Minnesota that you would rather be outside than inside. May and June are very nice, as is September and October. The rest of the year? Forget it. Our main use of the outside area (we have a two level deck about half the length of our house) is as a place to enjoy a glass or two of wine when we get home from work. I also enjoy cooking on my new Weber gas-started charcoal grill. Sometimes we eat outside if the weather is pleasant and it is early enough that the mosquitoes aren't out. But most of the time I bring the food inside and we eat in the kitchen or the dining room. We would like to add a Hot Tub to our outdoor area. We had one at our previous house and really enjoyed it. (Well, maintaining it during the winter wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but that is another story!) We’ve talked about putting the hot tub in a screened gazebo so we wouldn’t have to worry about the bugs and winter maintenance would be easier. Of course then we would have TWO relatively expensive things to buy and maintain!
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Once Spring and Summer hits we eat dinner and spend our weekends outside in our backyard patio area. We are in the process once our garden is done for the season of developing an area in our small lawn area that is all wooden benches and a fire pit. We generally have to wipe off our tables and use the dry vacuum on our furniture once a week.
Originally Posted By Big Thunder We live in So CA, we enjoy our back yard. I love outdoor living. We moved last year and the backyard was a major part of choosing our current home. We have a fire pit, comfortable chairs to sit around pit. In winter I cover the chairs [they have cushions] lately I've been leaving them uncovered. I suppose they can get dusty, if so just slap them with a towel. In a separate area we have a deck which I'm unsure what I am going to do with, it's towards the back and we don't hang out there much. near the pool is a metal/canvas gazebo which provides good shade during the day, but recent winds damaged it while I was out of town, I'm thinking of replacing it with a big palapa umbrella instead as the plans for pool area is to go totally TIKI, currently adding tropical plants, shrubs and tress, tiki poles, etc. We actually hang out in the gazebo area a lot, there is a table w/ chairs. Around the pool are chase lounges and more outdoor chairs, mood lighting, floating pool lights, it's nice at night. I love outdoor cooking. A couple of years ago for fathers day I got a new gas grill, I love it. One of my favorites is cooking salmon on cedar planks. We have another set of outdoor table/chairs and enjoy dining out back on the patio. We use a vinyl table cloth, easy clean up. As for flying insects at night, we have citronella candles in certain areas and by the pool are Tiki torches with citronella oil. Bugs aren't a huge problem, but they are present, the citronella helps, but in reality I usually only use them when company comes over. We have an outdoor ice cooler that amazes me because ice lasts almost a week in there. I do not have a permanent BBQ island which are popular these days, but it lingers on a wish list for maybe someday in the future. The one thing that is different in this back yard compared to previous home, is that most of it is concrete, not much grass, just a small area. I suppose that makes maintenance easier.
Originally Posted By LuLu I live in a perfect climate for an outdoor room, and have a large covered patio. I don't have central air either, so an outdoor room would be great in the late afternoon/evening when the outdoors cools off sooner than the indoors. I started doing the "outdoor room" thing and got really dismayed at the amount of cleaning required. I like the whole look with the outdoor rug and all, but I can't imagine keeping one of those clean. (I stopped before getting a rug, and I'm glad I did.) In my mind, this concept works for people who have maids. I just don't enjoy cleaning, nor do I like sitting on dirty furniture! I now keep my outdoor sofa covered with a heavy white flannel sheet all the time. Then if I'm entertaining I can easily take it off. If I just want to "set a spell," I can see if it's clean enough to just sit on the sheet. Still, the arms (which aren't covered) are always dusty, as are the coffee table and dining set. Even hosing it off doesn't make it "clean" IMHO. So, it just has a bit of an "icky" factor - unless you're big on cleaning. The outdoor vac sounds like a great idea. I did put in a small pond and garden next to my patio. I really enjoy it, from inside or out. My fountain/pump croaked and I've been cleaning out my pond and looking forward to getting it going again. I love the fire pits, but am rather torn on getting one, due to the amount of pollution they create. Anyway, the outdoor room is a lot of work!
Originally Posted By LuLu BTW we don't have much of a bug problem here. So that's a plus. We have several large French doors w/o screens and are able to cool the house by opening them when it's cool out, without worrying too much about bugs. I don't think I'd enjoy sitting ouside if there was a "bug factor" too!
Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger Thanks to everyone who contributed. My (rather pathetic) attempts at outdoor living pretty much mirror LuLu's - things just get dirty, and if you don't use it for a week or two, you spend a good deal of time cleaning it, and then you can't use it 'til it dries out. You have to stay on top of all the work it takes. As to outdoor cooking. It gets so hot where we are that, during the summer at least, it's just too unpleasant to go outside until 8:00pm or later. That makes dinner prep a bit tricky, unless you are really late eaters. We do get some flying bugs here, but they are mostly the nuisance kind, like beetles. The one that are really bothersome are the spiders and the ants. They just climb into/onto everything outside. Well, I'll keep watching HGTV and see if I can get ideas on how things might work.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Two ideas that might work for you regarding the bugs: 1. A ceiling fan or two for the outside patio. Works wonders. I live very close to the wineries so flies are constant. 2.<a href="http://www.rescue.com/Products/DisposableFlyTrap.asp" target="_blank">http://www.rescue.com/Products /DisposableFlyTrap.asp</a> RESCUE!® products can be found at selected locations of these retailers. Each includes a store locator on their web site. Ace Hardware (RESCUE!® products available online) Albertson's American Drug Stores/Osco, Savon, Lucky Do-it Best stores (RESCUE!® products available online) Fred Meyer (Northwestern U.S.) Home Depot (RESCUE!® products available online) Long’s Drug Lowe’s Orchard Supply Hardware (California) True Value Hardware Wal-Mart I would make sure I did not have them close to windows or sitting areas as they do start to stink. ;>
Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger Hmm, I'll have to check those out, thanks. *Noted in my Google Notebook* We found a pretty good cure for the flying beetles a number of years ago: we turn on the pool light every night for a couple of weeks when the bugs start coming out for the summer. After a week or two we find very few around (though I have to clean the skimmer every morning But the spiders and the ants - no solution to those yet, other than spraying with poisons every other week or so. Not something I'm eager to do.
Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger Oooo - looked at that site a little more! One of those pesky beetles that we deal with are those japanese beetles. They have a trap for those.
Originally Posted By Schmitty Good Vibes I had the Adventureland / Tiki back yard. I'd BBQ every chance I got. Dirt and dust wasn't much of a problem. Didn't use too much citronella either, just in the Tiki torches. Occasionally the bugs would get bad enough that I'd plug in the bug zapper. The only hint I have about that is some people set up their patio seating and have the bug zapper right along side. People, it's designed to ATTRACT bugs!! Put it about 30 - 40 feet away from your living area and it should do the job.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 Exactly SGV. Nothing better than talking or eating and hearing the zzz zzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz of bugs frying. LMAO!
Originally Posted By CrouchingTigger Not to mention the lovely smell of burning bug. It really complements a nice burgundy.
Originally Posted By debtee <The only hint I have about that is some people set up their patio seating and have the bug zapper right along side. People, it's designed to ATTRACT bugs!! Put it about 30 - 40 feet away from your living area and it should do the job.> Oh yes I agree. Ours are situated in the perfect position away from where we are seated and work really well!
