Planning My Outdoor Projects

Almost every time she comes over, she mentions my fallen shutter on the front window, and I tell her, “You can’t rush projects like that. I still have a little more planning to do on that before I’ll be ready to tackle that project.” And we laugh, move on, and I forget about it until the next time she comes over. But that shutter has been down for way longer than I’d like to admit because it’s embarrassing that I’ve put it off this long.

I’d also like to tackle the skirting on the front porch, which is yet another project that I started and never finished. I used that lightweight stone veneer, and you’re supposed to paint it or use a protective coating if you’re going to use it outside. But, since I never finished it, I never got to the painting stage. And now a lot of it is brittle, cracked, and chipping off. So I need to take it off and start over again. But this time, I don’t want stone. I have a different look in mind altogether.

I’m also going to take this time to spruce up the front porch. I eventually want to replace all of the cedar porch boards and replace them with composite boards that don’t have to ever be stained again. But I don’t want to tackle any major projects like that right now. So for now, I’ll stick with the easier stuff. The front door needs a good cleaning and possibly a fresh coat of paint. The dryer vent needs to be painted so that it doesn’t stick out like sore thumb. The columns could use some repairs and a fresh coat of paint. And I’m still on the hunt for the perfect stain/sealer for the cedar porch. I’ve tried about three different brands of stain/sealer for wood porches, and I haven’t really been impressed with any of them. I also have some new, larger lights that I’d like to put up on either side of the front door so that I can use these smaller ones on my workshop.

I’d love to come up with a final plan for the area in front of our breakfast room windows. I have our landscape plan as a long term goal, so maybe I can get a part of that plan implemented right now. I’d love to find a water feature that I can put in that area. That area really needs some interest and some color.

And then I’d like to tackle the new bedroom door. I still don’t have a solid plan for the steps/ramp for that door, but I’d like to come up with a plan and get that done. My studio door on the other side of the house still need steps as well. I put that project off for so long because it didn’t make any sense to build the steps when we didn’t even have a driveway there. But now that we have a driveway, I have no excuse to keep putting that off.

I’m not sure exactly how long I’ll spend on these outdoor projects. I just know that right now, these projects excite me and I feel anxious to get outside and get started. When I think about starting on a big indoor project, I feel nothing but dread. So I think this is just the break from big indoor projects that I need right now.

I think our house could be so cute, but these unfinished projects are probably the only thing people see when they drive past our house right now. I’d like that to change. I want our house to stand out as the cute house on the block, not the house with the fallen shutter, or the house with the unfinished porch skirting. So I’m pretty excited to get started on these projects and see just how much I can get done before I feel like I’m ready to head back inside and tackle the next big indoor project.