The Little Porch That Could

The porch from hell got some lovin' this past weekend, so it doesn't look like an episode of Hoarders anymore.  We spent most of the afternoon on Saturday cleaning and moving and decorating.  And by that, I mean that Eric did the majority of the work and I stood there and bossed him around.  I'm very adept at bossing.  

So here is a somewhat before shot.  I didn't get it in all of it's horrendousness, but this is bad enough. 

 WHO LIVES LIKE THIS?  In our defense (small as it is) some of this was only recently hauled out when we were sorting things for the yard sale.  I have no idea why most of this didn't end up in the sale.  We might be slightly daft.  

Eric was crying because I was being so bossy.  I'm THAT good! Okay, maybe he was just wiping the sweat off of his face.  

Then he threatened me with a hatchet! He'd look much more menacing if he wasn't smiling. 

And we have lights! 

I really thought that Eric was going to have a nervous breakdown when he was stapling up the lights. He was horrified that I wanted them to be haphazard rather than lined up in orderly and well-spaced lines.  I thought I would have a nervous breakdown because he was stapling them up while they were plugged in.  I was sure he was going to end up stapling through the wire and fry himself, not to mention mess up my pretty lights.

Ladies and gentlemen, this porch has been cleansed.    

The dresser will be going inside after it's had a couple of days to lose its paint smell.  

See these chairs? Eric snagged them for me one day at a yard sale for $30 - for both of them! 

He has learned the art of junking well.  I think I'm going to leave them as is and just spray them with a clear coat so the won't rust or lose any more paint. Now I just need to find a small round table to put between the chairs rather than the fan.  

My little plant corner.  The plant on the top left shelf looks like it's dying because it is dying.  A slow, painfully torturous death.  It's Thai basil and I have no idea why it wants to commit suicide, but it does.  I keep giving it water and trying to coax it out of its funk, but I don't think I'm getting through.  

And finally, the porch when I love it the best.  

There are still a lot of things that need to be done, but my porch "to do" list shrunk considerably thanks to my very sweet boyfriend.  

It really didn't take that long to do and it looks so much better! Of course, considering what we started with, a blind, mentally deficient, one-armed monkey could have made it look better.  But it makes me unbelievably happy to have such a great place to sit and just be.  

I have some more porch projects and ideas in mind that I'll be sharing with you and a few things that I'm going to need your help with.  

Stay tuned! 

Be happy,
Rachel