Gardens Home & Garden

Yeah, I prefer houses with doors that are at the front and the back rather than on the sides.

I was watching one episode and the buyer mentioned to Phil that he didn't like that the front door was on the side of the house. Phil looked at him like he was crazy. But I get it. I don't want people wandering around my house looking for the front door. I want them right out front.

My house has the back door at the back. My living room is at the very front with the dining area next to it. The kitchen is behind the dining area and the laundry room is behind that. The back door is at the end of the laundry room. In reality, the kitchen and laundry rooms are just one big hallway to the back door. The laundry room is only 6*9 and the kitchen is a galley 9*9.

One of my biggest must haves was a front door that opened onto a covered porch. I had lived at a house with no covered porch and I hated standing in the rain trying to unlock the door. And that door took a beating from the rain.

My other must have was windows on all four sides of the house. My parents like ranch style homes and all the windows were on two sides only. It always felt dark. My house is pretty square and most rooms have windows on two walls. So much more light even in the north facing living room - it gets light from windows on the north and east walls plus from the westand north facing windows in the dining area.

I have my kitchen in the back and my living room on the front, 2 doors to the front and 2 doors to the back, albeit the one at the back is French doors in the kitchen and the back door in the other room, the ones at the front are the front door into the hallway and the other to the garage which I use to bring the dogs in and out, which saves the living room getting dirty when it’s been raining if we been outdoors. It was a three/ two and a box room so not actually three when I moved in, but had a two bedroom extension on top of the already built garage on it so it’s four bedroom now and the box room, that’s where the boiler got moved to, so I turned it into a walk in wardrobe as it’s no good for a bedroom anymore. At the time it was cheaper to extend than it was to move, so that’s what we did.

That sounds nice! Having four exits is nice.

We don't have box rooms here. I suppose that's because we have the built-in closets instead - they not only provide that storage space, but they take up little bits of space left over in the floorplan.

One thing I'd love to add to my house is a half or even 3-quarter bath accessible from the back yard. It would be fairly easy to add it on the other side of the exterior wall of my existing downstairs bathroom.

Thank you @Toedtoes

I would love a downstairs loo tbh, like when I lived at home we had a cloakroom downstairs and a bathroom upstairs, but the bathroom here is so small, I had the bath taken out and a full walk in shower put in as we all used that more than the bath. I would of also liked a sun room out on the back too with bifold doors, but I’ll just have to dream on them ones The houses they build nowadays are small with very little gardens to them, I would never have a new build, they are not brick built inside anymore like they used to be, it’s just wooden framed and plaster board now and really thin so you can hear everything from the next room. They look nice but only surface nice.

Just thought I would show you the full blooms now, I don’t want to bore you with all of them.
My hosta is in bloom and I’ve never had so many flowers on it ever!!

My hanging basket is nearly touching the floor



my hollyhock is in the first year flowering and is about 5ft tall, but when the flowers open I’ll post a new pic on when they bloom

These are the plugs that have flowered, I put those foxgloves at the back out the way of the dogs as they don’t go up on the raised bed.
Considering it’s been very dry weather I just can’t believe the garden has done so well. I’ve tried to be as bee and insect friendly as I can and there’s been so many big bumblebees and honey bees in the garden with butterflies and ladybirds too

Nice!!!

My sleep is all off again. I don't sleep well when the nights stay hot. So I haven't done much with my garden other than water. I keep telling myself I'll get out there tomorrow, but the next day I feel drained and just want to nap.

Thank you again @Toedtoes.
Yes I’ve been watering in the morning, but it’s cooled down today to what is has been, we’ve hardly had any rain here and I was expecting a good downpour but it seems to have missed us apart from a little tiny bit but no sooner had it rained it all dried up again.