Outdoor Living

I really love the outdoors. To me, the outdoor spaces are what really make a home special. It is where you have spring and fall dinner parties. It’s where you sit by the fire with a beer. It’s where you talk to the neighbors (Nick and Katie are super friendly and their two dogs always say hi, too). So, to me, the outside is just as important as the inside and this house has an amazing backyard. Luckily the previous owners were big gardeners so the yard is full of mature flowering trees and bulbs. It is amazing in the spring.

We made some improvements, too, mostly with new decks, turf improvements, and adding some more plants and bulbs. We also expanded the garden and added a full glass backdoor into the kitchen. We really enjoy the door because it lets you see the whole yard and deck and let’s good light into the kitchen.

Two decks were added with enough room for a patio living room set and dining table.

Before

The yard was really overgrown when we bought the house. I don’t think the owners were living in it for about a year or so. We hired someone local off of Craigslist to help us clear it and we liked him and kept having him come back and do more work around the yard. You can find him at kellygreenlandscape.com. He does great work and very reasonably priced, too.

Where the deck is now was an old porch that was falling off of the house. Underneath the porch were covered up basement stairs. We brought the stairs back and added a new basement door into the mudroom/laundry room which works out really nice to not have to always go into the house through the kitchen.

RIP old porch.

It pretty much fell down on its own. The new decks are so much better.

After porch but before deck.

Here’s how it looked pre-deck but after the porch was gone. These were the stairs we found that lead very nicely into the new basement mudroom.