A Quick Clean Up

On Sunday, Chris decided to go out and use the weed wacker, so I took this time to spruce up the little "back porch" area, which had gotten overrun with junk (do you see a recurring theme, here?) I have a few more tasks to tackle before I'll be happy with this area, but I definitely took a good first step to getting it ready.

So here's what we were coming home to before:

We actually had the snow shovel and an old mop out here, too, but I forgot to take pictures before starting to clean up.

You can see in the picture below where the section of the door frame was replaced after the break in. I still need to paint that. But unfortunately, it's still bowed and the door catches on it when we close it, so I need to sand it down again. I guess it's the weather that's changing the wood because it closed fine when the guys originally repaired the frame.

Yikes.

 The ceiling, sadly has looked like this since we moved in. I think that should be a pretty easy fix so I should really get on that. Also, I'd love to add a cool light fixture out here.

Messy, messy.

What all did I remove from this tiny, tiny space? Here's the list:

• 3 door mats
• 1 snow shovel
• 1 broom
• 1 bird feeder
• 1 bird house (with a broken rope hanger)
• 2 badminton racquets and a birdie
• 1 huge container of Home Defense bug killer
• 2 empty Raid spray cans
• 1 can of bug spray
• 2 containers of bird seed
• 2 bags of bird seed
• 1 piece of rope
• 1 umbrella
• 1 piece of old trim from the bathroom
• 1 old plastic mop
• 1 hose nozzle

That's insane, right? It's incredible how things accumulate and you don't even realize how bad it is until you dig in.

O.K. so here is the back porch after a little sprucing up. Now we've got a nice clean slate to work with for tackling some painting, repairs and upgrades out there.

Definitely need to swap out those light switch covers for some white ones. Old beige just isn't cutting it.

I'm definitely toying with the idea of painting the floor and the back steps for a pop of color and to make it look cleaner.

A while back, Chris upgraded the screen door to help keep the kitties inside. Before, the door would just swing shut, but didn't have a latch to stay shut. So the kitties could push on the door and let themselves out. Luckily Shadow and Zoro never did this, but Oreo was famous for it and that's how he got out after the break in.

So Chris added this pretty door handle and a latch so the door would stay shut. I still need to patch the hole where the old handle was and wash down the door and maybe paint.

And the latch was sort of a strange fix because the screen door was installed in a less-than-ideal way. So Chris had to rig up a suitable fix. I think once I get to painting this area, it'll blend in better.

This definitely has me ready to keep working and to get this area looking pretty and inviting.