The porch is finally screened in!! Ignore the bags in the above picture. I brought a lot of bedding and stuff in from storage and it's waiting here until I get it washed and put away. Our treadmill is on the porch because there is no room inside. We will get a sheet or something to cover it to keep it from getting dusty (and covered in pollen).
For anyone new to the blog we built our house on the property where I grew up. It is actually attached to my parent's house (my grandparents have a house on the property too, so three generations!), so we share a porch that runs the length of both houses. Our half is 28 feet by 9 feet approximately. We like to keep our doors open, but the problem is if we both have our doors open our dogs can go into the other's house and eat the other dog's food. So we had to make a barrier.
My mom came up with this genius idea!
It's just cinder blocks and scrap wood!! I put my plants on the two shelves and the boards on the right make a gate.
This is tall enough that neither dog will try to jump it. It's chest height on Jackal. Sorry my parent's end of the porch is a bit cluttered. My dad was building mom a new table. I'll have to share it when they are done painting it. It's really cool.
The outside of the porch is a dark brown with red doors and eventually we will board in the inside and paint it to match. For now it's open. I'll try to get pictures of the outside of the porch soon.
Check out all my new flowers that hubby bought me!! The ones on the shelves are the new one. He got me a sweet potato, two Lantana (I LOVE Lantana!), a Geranium (like the one in the pot below it that I got last year), a Pansy, an Abunda and four six packs of Vinca in three colors. I pruned my Geranium from last year and put cuttings in three more pots! :D
I got the cactus above eight years ago when it was one stalk only a few inches tall and now it has two main stalks and is about twenty inches tall!! I had a bunch of little baby cacti in the pot so I dug them up and put them in a pot for mom and started a second pot for myself. I also pruned it back and put cuttings in three tiny pots for us to put in our kitchen windows. Now we have lots of cacti!!!
I got my fountain back out that mom bought me years ago. It's sitting right outside the window where my brother watches T.V. (he has cerebral palsy so he lives with my parents) and he loves being able to watch it and see my flowers. :D
Here is our table and chairs that mom and dad gave us. It's in front of our bedroom window. It was pretty weathered from being out on the porch, but hubby cleaned it and conditioned it with lemon oil and it looks amazing!!!! I'll almost be sad to cover it with a table cloth so we can eat out on the porch! Also as soon as I buy a hammock stand (after Rolex if I have any money left lol) I will put my double wide canvas hammock out there on the end where the bags are. :D I can't wait!
I feel like we accomplished a lot (had to clean and sweep the leaves and debris off the porch from when it wasn't screened in, moved the firewood off the porch for summer, cleaned and arranged furniture and put up the flower barrier) today. I love my porch and I'm so excited to be able to enjoy it just in time for beautiful spring weather!!
