Porch Make-Over

Whenever something isn't working - whether that's some method of organization, the arrangement of furniture in a room, a schedule of activities - Time. Will. Tell.

Loudly.
Without fail.

And continue to yell at you until you get it.
And change it.

This is how I felt about our front porch arrangement: at first, things were working fine but one day, it began to accumulate clutter.

Stuff.

Things that needed to be put elsewhere (and instead of doing just that, we added a Rubbermaid bin to the porch and start filling it up.) but weren't. That also included old newspapers and empty guinea pig food containers.

We were happily headed toward earning the honorary title of "THAT neighbor", and our neighbors really don't deserve that.

Yesterday, everything came to a screeching halt. Coming home after picking up Little Man from the school bus stop, I just couldn't stand it any longer and rather than tackling one of the projects on the interior to-do list, I tore our front porch apart. I delegated Little Man to drag our Christmas tree to the curb and then asked him to help me to carry the monstrous guinea pig (we have two guinea pig ladies, Cookie and Brownie) into the back yard.

Yes, that's guinea pig manure on our front porch (since the porch angles ever so slightly down and away from the house, straw, food and other stuff tends to roll out of the cage all by itself). I know, I know. I told you it was bad!

[In-progress: The neighborhood cats are befuddled by the activity on the porch]

After removing everything that had no business on our porch, sweeping and hosing it off, I started to rearrange our porch furniture.

The only ones to use our bench are the cats. They clamber up and perch on the back of it to peek through our window. We assume watching us is like TV to them. People TV! Of course, if we aren't quick enough to feed them in the morning, there's much caterwauling to be heard and seen from this vantage spot.

I decided to unscrew it from the house (no kidding, it was screwed to the siding with 4 large L-brackets) and move it. My dream is to pick up a porch swing at some point but for now, the DIY budget is slated for other things so it'll have to wait. Instead, I moved the bench over against the railing of the side of our porch. Not bad!

I changed the angle of the old bamboo rug, then moved our patio table and two of the chairs to restore our porch dining area. Me likey! A lot! Even Little Man piped up with how much he liked the new look.

The little old two-tier shelf/side table went next to the bench, and voila! Done!


The remaining two chairs wandered over to the other side of the porch for a quick seating arrangement next to the entry. It probably won't get any real use but it's a good spot to keep the chairs in case we need to seat more people over at the table. Plus, I figure I can't take just shut down the porch kitties' People TV for good.

All nice and tidy. I wonder what the husband will say when he comes home? Heh ...

View from the entrance door: A simple, no-cost clean up and rearranging of porch furniture made this a much more pleasant space. Now, we're no longer "THAT neighbor" - phew!

Sure, we still have to power wash, skimcoat and paint the porch floor, replace the railing with a historically appropriate wooden railing, install a fence, paint the house and redesign the landscaping up front, but for now, for now I can live with it.