Category: Out of Doors

The Patio

Back in Kansas, our friends had an awesome backyard that everybody simply referred to as, “The Patio.” Café lights were strung up at the beginning of March and it became the go-to spot for all gatherings throughout the spring and summer.

When living in a small space, taking advantage of every square inch is totally important. This applies to any and all outdoor spaces at your disposal, as well. We are lucky enough to have a decently-sized (9-ish x 5-ish feet) balcony that overlooks the courtyard and pool. It was important to me that we create a comfortable, livable, fabulous “outdoor room” here, and I feel like that goal has been met! Read on for details…

In an effort to bring a little bit of “The Patio” to our new balcony, we strung up café lights the day we arrived (I was extremely proud of myself for being able to swiftly locate them in the jungle of to-be-unpacked boxes) and put our folding chairs up outside. The chairs are not the greatest in quality, in fact we picked them up around this time last year at Target, clearanced for $4 each. I am not a fan of those ubiquitous plastic backyard chairs nor have I ever been a fan of the fold-up camping chair (comfortable, sure, but they look ugly to me). So, although our chairs might threaten to fold up with you still seated inside, they look iconic and remind me of childhood summers. Perhaps later this fall as summer items continue to get clearanced, we may upgrade. But for now, I like these little guys.

The World Market rug that has followed me from place to place since 2006 may have found its final resting place here on the patio. We will see how the (admittedly mild) weather treats it. While we have an awning over the balcony, the rug did get rained on for the first time ever last week.

The day I put my reservation deposit in on this apartment, I set foot in West Elm for the first time (after spending countless hours poring over their catalog and website) and grabbed the blue dipped pot on sale. I am still trying to think of the perfect plant to put in it. The pot has no drainage hole in the bottom, so recommendations are much-appreciated.

Additionally, we hung up the nautical souvenir we got on our honeymoon in Maine, a Moroccan-inspired lantern (full disclosure: purchased in Dallas) and the Tibetan prayer flags Doug picked up for me at a flea market in London. These little bits and baubles were secured using zip-ties, much like the chicken wire that eases my neurotic mind (in regards to Mosey poking his head out underneath the rails). Looking up from a distance (usually from the hot tub) and seeing these efforts at personalizing our space makes me smile.

Although the company is different, at night, with the lights on, it does bring to mind The Patio back in Kansas. And the memories are good.

Loss Prevention

Our new apartment (a few more “in progress” shots coming soon) is on the third floor! This is great for getting rid of the extra pounds I put on over the last year, but not so good when it comes to my nerves about little Mosey squeezing out under the railing on our small balcony. If he can fit under the bed (his new trick, now that our bed is no longer on the floor), he can squeeze out under the rail. I mean, he could if he really wanted to.

Here’s a quick little project Doug took care of as soon as we moved in–while I arranged stuff in our closet and worked on some kitchen organization, he finished this up in an evening. The rails are too narrow for little Moze to squeeze out of, but the section underneath made me a little paranoid–he’s probably smart enough not to squeeze out and fall to his doom, but he might get his head stuck or something.

My dad had some extra chicken wire left over from a pigeon-prevention project he undertook at their home a number of years ago, so the cost of this project was only about four bucks for the zip ties. Doug simply cut the chicken wire into four long strips using wire cutters (included in this basic tool kit I snagged at IKEA a number of years ago) and attached the strips to the bottom of the fence using small 4-inch zip ties. It took about twenty zip ties so now we have 80 for other projects… yeah.

This simple task has helped set my mind at ease, because we love sitting out on our patio and Mosey loves watching the kids play in the pool and barking at other dogs. Not to mention, if he plays with toys out here, there’s less of a chance of them falling and getting lost.

And, unless you’re really looking for it, you can’t really see the chicken wire from a distance.

Ever taken any safety measures simply for paranoia’s sake? I don’t think that there was a real risk here but now I really won’t have to worry!!

Reflections on Yard Work

The most recent photo of our exterior

Living in the hacienda marked our first year of taking care of a yard of our own. So here are some reflections–including a few contributions by Doug as well.

  • Raking leaves is the worst.

One good thing about this winter is that it was comparatively mild. We didn’t get any blizzards or snowed-in days. Unfortunately, this meant that the leaves took forever to fall, little by little. Our street is filled with old houses and mature trees– this translated into LOTS of leaves for a long time, since each species of tree dropped leaves at different times. We must have taken a pickup-bed full of leaves to the dump at least five times throughout the fall and winter!

  • Mild winters are awesome

One–we didn’t have to buy a snow shovel since the previous tenants had left one in the garage. WINNING! Two–we only had to use the snow shovel but once or twice since the winter was extremely mild. I was expecting the worst since in February and March 2011 my car got totally buried a couple of times.

  • Doug loves mowing the lawn.

I’m so happy for this fact. If it were up to me, I’d mow once a month. However, beginning in March-April, Doug started mowing the lawn when he got home from work every Friday (to get it over with before the weekend). Being a sports buff, he liked mowing it on the diagonal to make it look like the sports fields he’s seen on TV since he was little. To mow our “back forty,” the section beyond the wire fence) he had to awkwardly/sneakily cut through the neighbor’s carport so he only mowed that every 2-3 weeks. That section of the yard isn’t used at all, and is mostly weeds, but chopping everything down to an even level every so often really made it look nicer.

  • Related to the above: Edging really makes a difference.

Chalk it up to laziness, but I never saw the reason Doug pulled out the weed-whacker every time he mowed as well. (Eventually, the edging was reduced to every 2 weeks–once it got ridiculously hot). Again, if it were up to me, I would not have edged a thing! Truthfully, I could tell a big difference after edging and I’m glad he took the time to do it (even if he had to buy two extension cords to get all the way to the sidewalk!).

  • Planting seeds works!!

Back in March, we were shocked when a bulb came up all on its own. So I got all excited and planted a few packets of seeds I picked up from Wal-Mart for just a couple bucks each. Much to my surprise, around May, flowers started coming up!! I had seeded really really heavily since I was suspicious of them being picked up by birds or not beginning to grow at all. Big mistake. I really should have put them down with more thought and purpose. Turns out, lots of them grew and eventually ended up crowding each other out. We had to pull out all the poppies in August since they were yellow and withered, and eventually pulled out the cosmos and zinnias too.

  • Mulch makes a big difference–at first.

You can read about our (not-so-exciting) mulching adventures here. The bed looked fantastic until the cosmos and zinnias went crazy, got insanely tall (the zinnias over 5 feet!) and the bermuda grass started coming back through as well. If we had taken the time to weed a few times a week, we might have been able to keep it at bay, but temps were regularly over 100 this summer–and didn’t cool down in the evening like this California girl is used to!! I was not going to spend time out there. Oh, and did I mention how my body overreacts to mosquitoes? No, thank you. I’ll stay in and let the bermuda grass come through.

  • Watering is a huge pain.

Growing up, my parents always had underground sprinkler systems (that they installed themselves!) that made watering a no-brainer. To be honest, I didn’t notice a huge jump in the water bill like I’d been expecting, but hooking up the hose to the sprinkler and moving it around the yard was a huge pain. Not to mention, forgetting it was on at all! Some sections of the yard really benefitted from our forgetfulness. Doug and I had a standoff regarding how much/often to water, and we eventually compromised with watering most days–but not until the sun had started going down. Being a drought-conscious SoCal girl, it is heresy to water during peak/daylight hours (but people in our town do it all the time!!).

Do you remember any impressions you had from the first time you had your own yard? I’m glad we had this experience but, honestly, it’s a relief that we’ll be moving into an apartment complex with professional gardeners!