The Sanctuary

It's been a long time since I've talked about a house project.

Currently, we have two of them going on right now. One is the bathroom that I've been complaining about. I picked up some tile (under $20!) and we still need to get a new toilet. Apparently, you have to replace a toilet and floor at the same time. (Unless you intend to keep the toilet.) I am already looking forward to stepping onto a new fresh floor, rather than the sticky, pee-soaked laminate that we currently have.

Second, is what I call my "Sanctuary". Yes, I only jokingly refer to it as this; I do not actually tell guests that that is it's real name. But secretly, that is how I already think of it. Do you want to see it?

Here it is!

From the inside:

True, right now it doesn't look like much. It's overgrown with weeds, and it's dirty. It's also sort of dismal with this sort of damp feeling.

But do you see the potential?

From the moment we first walked through this house, all I saw was "dirty and dismal" but there was so much potential everywhere I looked. Every room has potential. I have a project idea for every room!

But look at the top picture again. Do you see those two poles? We are going to screen all that in. The middle part will be a door where the path leads out. We will put a lattice around the door but keep the rest of the front only screen so that we won't feel like we're in a cage. Plus, part of the idea of the sanctuary is to have a place for the adults to sit and watch the kids without sitting in the hot sun but still feel like they're outside.

On the sides, we will have two different sections of the wall with the lattice wall work. The other sections of the wall will be screen for a nice cross breeze. Ah, I can already feel that breeze...

The front of "sanctuary" will be weeded out and we'll put a nice flower garden in. I've already started, and it's amazing how much more cheerful it looks with just the little work I've done!

Now look at the inside view. See those two plots of dirt? We will grow hostas there along with other shaded plants. Hence, my "sanctuary". It will be sort of an indoor/outdoor garden surrounded by another garden.

Obviously, we will clean everything out. We will invest in some (hopefully inexpensive) patio furniture. I can already see a string of lights decorating the ceiling along with potted plants and flowers. I would love to put a small fireplace in the middle, but with my luck, we will burn the porch down. Probably a fire hazard, huh?

I am envisioning a relaxing summer...now we just have to build it. Let's see how this goes!