Summer Luxury

I am lucky actually to have a large porch and two patios.  I have the porch and a patio at my home, and a patio at my cottage. 

My love of screened-in porches (a patio) started many years ago.  My mom and dad had a patio installed on the back of their house.  This offered wonderful cozy summer nights and days bug-free.  This patio became the center of living during the warmer days of spring and summer.

I am a lover of the outside and having a screened-in patio was a luxury that I had to have.  So, for the next two houses that I owned, we installed this extra warm weather space.  I call this our summer family room.  To me, it is heaven to sit out on the patio, feel the breeze, and hear the birds, and other outside sounds without the annoying bugs not to mention MOSQUITOS.  I love to sit out there and read for hours on end.

It seems that when someone is lucky enough to have a screened porch they tend to enclose them with windows  This I don’t understand.  Yes, you can probably sit out for a few more days, but to me, it defeats the purpose of this summer luxury.  Once windows are put in it eliminates the feeling of being outdoors and it can be very, very warm on sunny days. Then it feels like just another room.  I experienced an enclosed porch one summer while vacationing in Colorado.  We had a rental with a glassed-in porch and you couldn’t even sit out there.  It was like a sauna.

Now, last summer I attended a tour of homes.  There was a home that had a screened porch.  This porch had screens and windows that came down like shades.  When they were open you couldn’t even see the windows.  Now, this I could handle. 

One downfall of my having a screened-in patio is I have to hurry to get things done so that I can feel justified to sit, read, feel the breeze, and enjoy my patio.

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