Home Tour Tuesday - Outdoor Living Space

Happy Tuesday!  I started a Home Tour Tuesday series a few months back (links to all of the posts are here), and I made the rounds through our entire house, but then I stalled when sharing our back porch because it wasn’t quite fully decorated.  Well, I’m happy to say that it is finally done (with the exception of hanging the TV) and I’m sharing it today!

If you’ve been reading for a while, you may remember that last summer we decided to add on to the back of our house.  When we built our house back in 2009, we opted for the covered back porch upgrade.  However, it was only 8x10 feet (if my memory serves me correctly), so there was barely room for a couple of chairs out there, and definitely no room for a table.  Plus the sun beat down on the entire porch every evening as it set in the west, so it was typically pretty hot and miserable out there.  Needless to say, we didn’t really spend a lot of time out there and it was pretty much just wasted space. 

On another note, our garage could barely contain our cars due to the amount of outdoor lawn equipment, etc. that was stuffed in there, and when Olivia was born our only spare room that contained all of my Christmas decorations, fall decorations, etc. was turned into a baby nursery.  In just five short years we had already outgrown our home.  Therefore, we thought it would be a great idea to add an indoor closet off of Brian’s office, an outdoor utility closet, and extend the back porch across the back of the entire house.

Best decision we’ve ever made.

We now have a large outdoor utility closet to house the lawnmower and all of the other lawn equipment which allows our garage to hold only our cars (so nice), we have a huge indoor closet to house all of my many holiday decorations and extensive gift wrap collection, and best of all, we have a gorgeous outdoor living space where we actually have room to enjoy ourselves.  Plus, the utility shed closes off the end of the porch to give us more privacy from the neighbors and it allows the entire porch to be in the shade all day long (even when the sun is setting) since the sun sets on that side of the house.  Win win win every way you look at it!

Construction began in the beginning of June last year, and it was completed by the end of August. 

Here is what the back of the house looked like before.

Here is the building process.

 

And here is what it looks like all finished.  Come on in!

When furnishing the porch, I knew I wanted three separate sections:

1. A place to eat

2. A place to lay out and read

3. A place to lounge on couches, hang out, and watch TV

And I also wanted a place to store the kids' outdoor toys. 

First up, the eating area...

Next, the area to lay out...

And then, the lounging area where we spend most of our time...

Finally, an area to house all of the kids' outdoor toys...

Our house backs up to an easement in the middle of the neighborhood, so we have tons of trees separating us from the other side of the neighborhood for ultimate privacy.  And that's exactly why we chose this lot!  It's all about location!

The only thing that we have left to do is to hang a TV on that left wall under where the twinkle lights dip down.  I’m hoping to have one up by football season because I can see us spending many Saturday evenings out there watching our Dawgs play!

We spent oodles of time out there this spring… we ate countless meals at that table, and we spent many evenings just hanging out, listening to music, and relaxing with drinks in hand.  I’m already looking forward to fall! 

Now all we need is a pool.  Ahem, Brian.  ;o)

*Linking up with Our Pretty Little Girls for Tuesday Talk, and Stang & Co. and Crown Me in Glitter for Talk About It Tuesday.