We recently purchased home on some acreage to start a small family farm. After all the years of military life, our family has been through a lot and needs a place for healing and finding a nurturing environment. The country pace and rolling land soothes the soul. Tending our flock is like therapy.
The place isn’t huge, but it’s perfect for our family. The best part (aside from living in the country) is the enormous outdoor living space we now have outside. We have access to the rolling fields or a paved back patio to embrace the beautiful nature of the area, but there are cozy zones for curling up with a book, a nice long table to accommodate a crowd for dinner or a BBQ, and endless storage for pool floats and outdoor sports. There’s still adequate room for a game of lawn darts, cornhole boards, and throwing the football.
Despite life-changing events, this was just the perfect place but I could see that this outdoor living space was well thought out, provided for our needs, and could still accommodate visits from family.
It just left me feeling so calm, and I welled up with tears of joy and relief that we have this wonderful place to call home, and I am so happy. Staying home feels like relaxation.
The Family Staycation
Traveling can be fun, but if I can stay home these days, I prefer that. I really want to embrace the beauty that exists naturally and expand my special places to include the little movie theater and lounge area, or sit in my herb garden, inhaling the scent of the earth, carried by the wind.
Imagine a multi-level deck that accommodates your lifestyle and personality. A well-made deck with an enclosed porch or veranda would be the thing. This’ll provide a bug-free area that provides shelter from the elements. If this is the kind of thing that appeals to you, contact a local company that can walk you through the process.
For instance, in Maryland, a custom deck contractor Bel Air locals use will advise their clients to go for moisture-resistant materials and screened-in porches to handle all the rain and bugs (especially during summer evenings). A deck builder in Fort Collins (Colorado) will go for a different approach because bugs/humidity aren’t a problem there; they’ll go with builds that deal with UV radiation (the Sun) and strong winds.
Always go with a local deck builder (even if it costs more), because they’ll know best what works and what doesn’t. They’ll help you design the perfect structure that suits your needs and fulfills all your wants.
You can build a functional, multipurpose space where you can integrate the in with the out. You won’t need fancy hotels and vacations; you will now have a brilliant staycation location that changes with the seasons.
Bringing in the seasons with the natural elements like earth, wind, fire, and water is a scrumptious way to create special areas or zones for your new space:
Dining/Entertaining/Play
The big social aspects of your space will be gatherings with relatives, friends, and neighbors. Eating meals together, playing a board game, reading quietly in a cosy corner with each other, or watching a movie in your makeshift theater. You can make a lounge area strewn with pillows, bean bags, blankets, and nice comfy seats where you can watch a movie on Christmas day, or have a home movie night where you gather to watch generations growing up before your eyes.
It might not take too much to make this happen; a fold-away screen, a computer, and a projector could offer hours of fun and make wonderful new memories. You could have easily movable cushions to accommodate a movie, then have a smorgasbord snack table or hot dogs you can cook over a little wood indoor fire burning stove.
This would create cosy nights with hot chocolate and watching the sun set, just being together and sharing time.
Comfort And Joy
A screened-in porch in one part and an open pergola element on the other will give you another indoor/outdoor space that can convert for the change in weather. We could have dinners with the family, screens open, and soft wind blowing through the folding doors. Or we could button down tight and watch the rain clouds collect over the pasture, or watch the lightning and count the seconds between the lightning and thunder.
I remember the oldest worn-out chair in the corner of the patio, where watching the sunset out back was hypnotizing. With a little planning and creating special areas or decor in different areas of an open space can bring your family closer together, but still provide opportunities to be alone, enjoy nature, contemplate your troubles, dreams, or ask the questions of life. A vacation spot just beyond the patio door, where you can have the best times and make memories to last a lifetime, no passport needed.
