Summer Updates Summarized

All done with my annual summer upgrades, that is, unless another idea pops into my head, LOL!! 

I purchased four new candle-holding lanterns to replace my old ones! For candles to be placed inside each lantern, I purchased two sets of six each LED rechargeable tea light candles that operate with a remote control device. I placed three candles in each of the four lanterns. 

My four old lanterns were over ten years old! The paint was pealing off of them and they all had developed a significant amount of rust. I decided to go with galvanized for the new ones, instead of black paint, as I believe they may last longer. 

The old lanterns, along with the LED candles I had inside each lantern (haven’t worked in years) were brought to the transfer station and disposed of! GONE!!

Lanterns these days are far more than I paid for these old ones! I believe I paid under $10 per lantern about ten years ago. The new ones I just purchased were just under $25 each, which is a great deal these days! Most of the other lanterns that were similar to my old ones were over $50 and went into the $90 range! 

The lanterns with built-in LED solar lights are actually cheaper for the most part; around $25 to $40, but most of those are plastic and not metal. I have one solar lantern hanging on a shepherds hook in my front garden but it only worked for one season despite storing it for the winter. It still looks nice out there, but it hasn’t lit up in years. I even tried changing the solar-rechargeable batteries with new ones. No luck. 

Thus, I didn’t want to invest in any more solar lanterns. furthermore, the location of the four lanterns on the farmer’s porch doesn’t allow for much direct sunlight to charge them. The candles I purchased can be removed and charged inside on the charger they came with. I’ll leave them in the lanterns all summer and will only remove them for charging and to store them during the winter months. 

They glow beautifully! I can set them to flicker slow or fast, or leave them in without any flickering at all. I like the covers that protect them too! 

I just love my farmer’s porch! When we retire we will be moving back to NH. We miss being there terribly. When we retire and purchase our home up there in NH, one of my must haves is a farmer’s porch! 

Aside from the lanterns and candles, I haven’t done any other updates to the farmer’s porch. Last fall I refurbished the bench by my front door and stained it with the same stain as my Adirondack bench seat. It made a huge difference! I also gave the Adirondack bench seat a fresh coat since it was the same exact stain and color. This was basically what the bench looked like prior to staining it. This was taken after I completed the first coat of stain to the bottom surfaces of the bench. 

And this is what it looked like after the project was completed! 

Here’s my farmer’s porch! 

The front yard is very attractive with really nice landscaping! 

I also just replaced the solar lamps that mount to the deck posts! The old ones were purchased about seven or eight years ago. Only two still worked somewhat; they still lit up at dusk but didn’t stay lit for very long. And they were never super bright either. They were very rough-looking and the clear plastic that the light shone through had yellowed. Here is the comparison between the new and the old! 

I replaced all six of the old ones with six new ones.! Two are located out front and four of them are on the deck. The new solar lights are so much brighter as compared to the old ones, even when they were brand new!  

I purchased twelve solar lights, some seen in the photo above, late summer last year for the walkway. I did a lot of research prior to purchasing them and it paid off! So far so good! Here are the rest of them. 

Here are the four solar lights for the deck! 

So the old solar lights, as well as the old lanterns and candles are gone!! 

I just love my solar lighted flowers too! I bought one set of four bunches of flowers last summer. I like them so much I ordered the same exact set about a week ago! They all have color-changing lights! So pretty! 

The other day my new umbrella light arrived and was added to one of the two umbrellas on the deck! I spent much time researching to find the brightest and best quality umbrella light! I have owned a couple of them in the past and they worked well for quite some time. But they got old and stopped working. They were not rechargeable and relied on standard batteries. The new umbrella light is far brighter than my old umbrella lights, and it’s rechargeable! It lights up the area quite well! 

A couple of days ago I added four tiki torches to the fire pit area out back! I only had one previously and it had rusted out. They look great! Between the string lights that I purchased last summer, the camp fire and the new tiki torches, it’s really beautiful and so relaxing! I have three tiki torches that are pole-mounted and one table top tiki torch. The following photos are were taken before it was totally dark outside; but it looks even prettier when it’s completely dark! So relaxing! I also love the hammock! I’ve had the frame and the hammock itself for at least ten years now! I have always taken really good care of it so it has really held up well! I occasionally throw the hammock into the washer to clean it and then mount it to the frame to dry. In between uses I put the hammock away in my deck box. 

Last year, for our 33rd anniversary, we bought all new deck furniture and a gas fire pit for our deck! We had one small rug (4’ x 6’) but this year I decided to buy another small rug, same size, and a large rug (8’ x 10’). They really add to the coziness out there! 

We also had two large deck boxes that didn’t fit well. We had to stack them to fit them, and even then it was still too crowded in that corner. But we needed both of these for storing all of the seat cushions, pillows and deck accessories. Having them stacked made it a challenge to access items from the bottom deck box! There wasn’t much space to move the top deck box out of the way. 

I had thought about getting an outdoor cabinet to replace the deck boxes, but I just couldn’t find one that would accommodate all of the seat cushions, pillows and other items. Even with side-opening doors that an outdoor cabinet has, it still wasn’t an adequate solution. The size I needed would take up just as much space as the two stacked deck boxes. 

So I went with four of these! It was time to replace the old deck boxes anyway. They were looking a bit worn and faded. Not terrible but the new ones are definitely far more attractive right now. We have nice-looking new furniture and rugs, might as well have new, nice-looking deck boxes to go with it all! 

Here’s my deck before adding these new deck boxes! I had small side tables in place. 

The four new half-sized deck boxes are awesome! I placed the old tables elsewhere: One on my farmer’s porch and two upstairs on the balcony off of our master bedroom. I have had them for years and they’re in great shape; however, if I had left them on the deck, the outdoor elements would have worn them out quickly. At least now they are back under cover where they were prior to moving them to the deck last summer. But, I have to admit that I liked the appearance of the little glass tables better than the deck boxes. But the deck boxes look nice too. They’re also strong enough to use as seats if needed. Not as comfy as the couches but better than than standing if we have too many guests for the couches! 

Here they are, received and ready for assembly, which was so easy! Each one took under 10 minutes to assemble! 

And here are photos of the new deck boxes in place! So easy to store and access everything!

I also added these two new citronella candles this year! 

I still have my old ones too. These contain citronella oil. I have had these for years (probably closer to fifteen years) and they still look ok; not great, but ok. But at night they do look very pretty when lit! I won’t replace them this year. Maybe next year, unless I come across a potential replacement and decide to purchase something else. 

I also bought this little wind chime at General Dollar for $5! Cute! 

Here’s my deck at night with the fire pit, candles and all of the glowing lights! So relaxing! The owner of one of the AirBNB places we stayed at one vacation had a gas fire pit on the deck, with rugs, and nice furniture! This is what inspired us to do something similar with our deck! 

*Note: These photos were taken before I replaced the side tables with the new deck boxes. 

Late last summer I stained this old picnic table with the same stain that was used on my bench and Adirondack bench on the farmer’s porch. I had to replace two of the legs because the old ones were rotting out about six inches up from the bottoms. Well worth it!! I still haven’t gotten to this area for a cleaning this year! But hope to get to it one evening after work this week! It’s a fairly easy project! 

Before photos! 

We purchased the picnic table, below, a few years ago. We went for ice cream one evening and the ice cream place had several of this exact same picnic table. We liked it so much, we took a photo of the label, which allowed us to find the same exact one and purchase it. We leave it out year round and it has held up really well! It still looks almost like new! But it can be folded up for storage too! It’s a nice feature if needed! 

Ready for summer!!! Yay!! 👍👍👍👍