Porch Update and Plants

'Mornin y'all!  How was your weekend? 

Two things today: porch progress and plants.

It's been a while since I've mentioned our porch.  In a nutshell, my husband started building it on his own in his spare time, and has been doing a beautiful job creating the screened-in porch of my dreams (click here for the full story and inspiration pics).  Today want to share the current state of the porch, as well as the plants we've got goin' on so far this season.  I'm linking up to Kate's most fabulous blog tomorrow, Centsational Girl, as she's inviting us to share all things plant.

So, here's where we left off last time:

Frank has been trucking along, finishing the floor, adding railings, door frames, and electrical.  And this is where we stand now:

Here's an updated list for those of you who get a thrill out of marking things off (like me!):
- seal, grout, then seal again the tile floors
- install 2 porch doors (one is installed, the other will go in when the deck is added next year)
- build the railings
- cover the columns with finish wood (about half of this is done)
- build a small platform and stairs to the yard
- install the finish boards on the ceiling
- install electrical/lighting (Frank got a lot of this done this week)
- paint it all (some primer is already up)
- screen it in
- furnish and decorate  (my favorite part!)
- finish the bottom of the porch with lattice or some slats or something (including a small door for access) 
- landscape along the perimeter

Lookin' pretty good, eh?  Oooh, and we ended up picking up a super cool church pew.  It's almost 13' long!  And it will fit beautifully on the porch.  It's in our garage now, covered with yard sale stuff, but here's a Craigslist pic:

I just love the shield detail.  Can't wait to get to work revamping it!

On to plants...This week I spent some time planting annual herbs and flowers.  We have some perennial thyme, rosemary, oregano and mint in a garden, but during the summer I like to have annual herbs in pots.  I just love being able to step out our back door to pick fresh flavors to brighten a summer dish or cocktail.  You heard about my mint juleps on Friday, my most favorite cocktail ever.

This side of the porch faces south, and is a perfect spot for the plants to get lots of sun.   



I adore hanging baskets overflowing with colorful flowers and trailing vines.  I'm too cheap to buy the expensive pre-planted ones, so I picked up the "ingredients" and made my own.  Hopefully they'll fill out in the next month or so. 



Peonies are some of my favorite flowers, and ours are blooming!



And I got our raised bed tilled and fertilized.  It will sit under cover for a week or two (to kill weeds and ripen the soil) until we plant some veggies (don't you love my redneck cover: cut-up trash bags held down by random gardening extras). 





Never mind the weedy and patchy grass.  It's on another to-do list. ;)

We're on our way to a yummy and beautiful summer! 

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