Creating an outdoor living space Archives

Outdoor Living Space to an Indoor Backsplash

by Wendy Scheel | May 23, 2016 | DIY

Last week we received a follow-up call from the landscape contractor about our outdoor living space. (This is where I first mentioned that project).

The small city that we live in has a regulation that only 25% of your property can be hardscaped.

Hardscape refers to hard landscape materials in the built environment as opposed to softscape, the horticultural elements of a landscape. This can include paved areas, driveways or retaining walls. It can include materials such as stone, concrete, etc.

Currently we are at 25%, which means we cannot add on a larger seating area, fireplace or pergola.

Oh wait, that’s not true! We can if we present our plan to the city council and then beg, OR we can rip out the cement driveway OR we can tear up everything we currently have and start over.

Ugh.

The area we have is fine and wonderful so as of today we are going to drop that project and maybe re-visit the idea some day in the future.

All I can do is take a big disappointing breath and move on to the next project on the wish list.

Luckily, I am equally excited about this next project.

Drumroll please…….A new backsplash in the kitchen!

Did you even know that our current backsplash is painted? Someone with a lot of talent painstakingly created this.

But is has run its course. There are spots and areas that will no longer clean up nicely. And when I say they don’t clean up, I mean they are really bad.

Cleaning is not my greatest strength. Oh who and I kidding, it’s not even in my Top 10. I can overlook, and flat-out ignore small spots and stains, but even for me this backsplash is past its prime.

Something needed to be done, so where else does one go if they are looking to tile their backsplash?

The Tile Stop.

This is where God presented me with a gift from Heaven.

He calls himself Chub.

Knowing very little about tile, Chub was a wealth of information. Not to mention a great listener and a patient man.

Like all of my projects, I have a vision. But I depend on others sometimes to make my vision a reality.

I described my vision to Chub and we talked though what my current cabinets and counters looked like. Thank goodness I could refer to the Home Tour 2015 pictures so he could totally envision the area.

After walking basically through the entire store (I told you he was patient), these were the first two sets of samples I brought home.

I quickly eliminated the sample on the left. It was too light and didn’t “add” anything to the kitchen. The other sample is a quartzite stone also in a brick pattern. Each and every brick has a different look and feel. And if I don’t like a particular brick, I can replace it with one from another sheet.

I think this might be “the one”. Stay tuned.

Wendy

Creating an Outdoor Living Space

by Wendy Scheel | May 7, 2016 | Home Tour, Sidenote Saturday

Two years ago when we bought our home, one of the reasons we fell in love with it is because it was finished. We didn’t need to do anything, it was move in ready.

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you realize from that statement that the joke was on us. Or more on me since Wade hasn’t really been fully on board about the couple of changes I have made.

I prefer to call them tweaks. Technically, I haven’t torn down any walls or ceilings. There have been no demo days. And before you say it, ripping carpet off of stairs doesn’t count.

Okay, have I justified all of my tweaks?

Let’s move on. 🙂

Another thing we loved about our home was the property. Yes, we live on a lake and it is amazing and wonderful. We pinch ourselves everyday that we are fortunate to live here.

But we were so happy to find a home that didn’t have a lot of landscaping. You see, we are not big garden people. That is not to say that we don’t love to look at others flower beds and vegetable gardens.

Low maintenance is our thing.

Low maintenance is defined as trimming and mowing the lawn in less than an hour and turning the sprinklers on.

A couple of months ago we visited the Home and Garden Show to talk with different companies about creating an outdoor living space.

We haven’t settled on a design or company but we have made a little bit of progress.

This is the back of that house that faces the lake.

This is a drawing by one of the companies we met at the Home and Garden Show.

The living space on the left is where the hot tub is now. In front of the outdoor couch is where the fireplace would be built. To the right of the living space is where the hot tub would be re-located.

In the upper left hand corner of the drawing is a view of a potential fireplace. In living color we are leaning towards something like these.