Don’t you just love the feel of a glowing fire as flames lick the air and project that special glow on everything around? Isn’t even better when that fire is outside, warming an inspiring outdoor living space and taming the winter chill in the air? Here are a few beautiful outdoor living spaces that use […]
RG Heaven on Earth | The Grill Area Refresh Completed
There are things I enjoy; there are people I love; there are activities I’m good at. Then, there is the one thing that brings all good things together into a hot mess of pure joy… that one thing is Grilling. I L-O-V-E to grill. I used to only just Love to grill (not all caps, […]
Weeds Be Afraid — Outdoor Clean-Up with Spectracide
We bought our house in Punta Gorda, FL ten years ago this month. During that time, we’ve almost never been here full-time. For reasons that have varied over the years, we’ve often split our time between home (Punta Gorda) and away. Sometimes traveling, sometimes in the mountains of North Carolina, and sometimes just a couple […]
Preserve and Enhance Exterior Wood With Thompson’s Waterproofing Stain
I’m a fan of wood decks. First of all, I love outdoor spaces and when we’re at our home in Punta Gorda, FL we spend as much time outside as we can, even in August! Secondly, compared to other outdoor surface options such as brick, stone, or concrete, I much prefer to work with wood. […]
Choosing The Best Fencing Material
If you’re in the market for a new fence at your home, you might be considering a question or two: What style of fence do you want? What height fence do you want? What material fence do you want? The first and most important thing, in my humble opinion, is to take a moment to […]
5 Secrets to Dreamy Outdoor Spaces
Here’s me: I’m flipping through the channels with one of the three remotes, while holding one of the others so I can toggle the mute button on the off chance something less than totally annoying comes on the screen. 5 million channels and nothing on. Isn’t there a song about this? Then I pass a […]
Landscaping Ideas and Inspiration
I took a few pictures while visiting a local new home landscaping project today. I thought maybe I’d share a few of those ideas with you here. But be warned, you might catch Landscape Fever like I have. Integrating Hardscape Into Landscape Design Hardscape is a term sometimes used in different ways. To me, it’s […]
Courtyards — The Outdoor Version of “Small is the new big.”
The cover of a House Beautiful magazine on the table next to me asks “Is small the new big?”. If I say yes, can we all agree on 40 being the new 30? I was led from said magazine to the website, HouseBeautiful.com, where I stumbled upon this picture. I usually flip through the pictures […]
A Bamboo Backyard Shed
Yesterday, I threw a shed together with materials I had laying around. I used a raised planter box as the foundation and made pretty quick work out of it, breaking most of the rules of good construction as I went along. You can see the wrong way to build a shed quick here. I thought […]
Custom Exterior Shutters Equals Serious “WOW!”
See what I mean? Wow! Custom Wood Shutters Are The Finishing Touch This is one of those pictures that makes me feel a little bit like something is wrong with me! As I stare at my keyboard I’m the equivalent of the high-school kid who was just introduced to the prettiest girl he’s ever seen. […]