Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

As adults, having an outdoor retreat adds an economic component: Upwards of 80% of homebuyers said patios and front porches are “essential” or “desirable,” according to the “What Buyers Really Want” survey from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).

So how come when we move into our dream home, we hardly ever use our decks, porches, and patios?

An anthropological UCLA study, described in the book “Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century,” blames our fascination with digital devices — tablets, computers, televisions, games — for keeping us cooped up. The UCLA research participants spent less than half an hour each week in their outdoor space. And these were Californians.

So this summer let’s make a pledge to pay more than lip service to outdoor living so we can be happier, create lasting memories, and generally take advantage of what home has to offer.

1.  Go Overboard on Comfy

When you step into your outdoor space, your first sensation should be ‘ahhhh’. If you’re not feeling it, then your space is likely lacking the comfy factor. Comfy is easy to achieve and can be as low cost as you want. Start simple with a cushion or two or even a throw. Some other simple strategies:

• Make sure your outdoor seating is as cushy as your indoor furniture. Today’s outdoor cushions aren’t the plastic-y, sweat-inducing pillows of the past. Plus, they can handle a downpour and spring back once they dry.

• Lay down outdoor rugs so you’re just as comfortable barefoot as you are inside.

• Give yourself some privacy. Create natural screens with shrubs, bushes, or even bamboo reeds. Or install prefab screens from your local home improvement store.

2.  Create a Broadband Paradise

Our devices and electronics have conspired to keep us on lock down. Since we’re not about to chuck our digital toys, boot up your outdoor space so you can keep texting, posting to Instagram, and watching cat videos.

• Wireless outdoor Wi-Fi antennas provide an extra boost so you can stay connected.

• A solar USB charging station keeps your gizmos powered.

• Wireless speakers make it easy to bring your music outdoors, and mask a noisy neighborhood.

• An all-weather outdoor TV lets you stay outside for the big game.

3.  Blur the Line Between Indoors and Out

Creating a seamless transition between your home’s interior and exterior isn’t as simple or low cost as adding comfort, but it’s the most dramatic and effective way to enhance your enjoyment of the space. Plus, it can increase your home’s value.

• The most straightforward, cost-effective solution: Replace a standard door opening with sliding or glass French doors.

• Use the same weatherproof flooring, such as stone tile or scored concrete, outside as well as in the room leading to your backyard oasis.

4.  Light the Way

When the sun goes down, don’t be left groping for your wine glass. Outdoor lighting dresses up your home’s marketability and appeal (exterior lighting is buyers’ most wanted outdoor feature, according to the NAHB study), makes it safer, and lets you spend more time outside.

• Use uplighting to highlight trees, architectural details, or other focal points.

• Add sconces or pendant lights to make evening entertaining, grilling, and reading easier.

• Illuminate walkways, rails, and steps with landscape solar lights.

• Hang fairy or string lights to set an enchanting tone.

5.  Make Your Mark

Let your style dominate your backyard space.

• Paint a faux rug with your favorite colors.

• Create a path made with colored glass, brick, or other interesting found materials.

• Craft a one-of-kind outdoor chandelier.

• Build a pizza oven, custom seating, or other feature you crave.

• Add personal décor that makes you happy.

In fact, make your outdoor retreat an ongoing project where you can hone your DIY skills.

6.  Don’t Give Anyone an Excuse to Stay Inside

Your outdoor space will magnetically draw family and friends if it has features they find appealing.

• A fire pit is a proven winner. Food and fire have brought humans together since the dawn of time.

• Give wee ones the gift of magical thinking with an outdoor playhouse.

• Add whimsy with a chalkboard fence that both kids and fun-loving adults will enjoy.

• Add a doggie window in your fence to entertain Spot. Installing a dog run may even boost your home’s value. FYI: It’s been said that pets are one of the top reasons why people buy houses.

Related: Outdoor Projects You Can Do with the Kids

7.  Rebuff the Elements

Hot sun, rain, wind gusts, and bugs are the archenemy of good times. Here are tips and strategies to help you throw shade on Mother Nature:

• Install an awning, canopy, or pergola. It’ll make it easier to read your Kindle or iPad and keep you dry during a summer shower. Look for products with polycarbonate panels, which block UV rays, too.

• Rig glass fence windscreens to the keep your BBQ fires burning.

• Screen in your porch or deck against bugs. But screening will be for naught if you forget the slats between wood planks. Cover the floor with outdoor carpet or staple screening to the underside of floorboards.

Table and Floor Lamps: Halogen Incandescent

• Light shines in all directions, providing a warm glow.

• Dimmable.

• Looks most similar to the traditional incandescent.

• Uses 25% to 30% less energy than the incandescent.

Table and floor lamps look best with omnidirectional light. “You probably don’t want a big bright spot in the middle of your lampshade,” says Jeff Harris of the nonprofit think tank Alliance to Save Energy. “You’re looking for a nice, warm glow.”

Halogen incandescents provide that, and are good with dimmers. You may be able to find a dimmable CFL, but it’s common to experience humming or flickering at low light levels.

For non-dimming lamps, CFLs are great if you can find a color temperature you like.

• Color temperature is measured on a warmness (candlelight) and coolness (blue sky) scale. LEDs, CFLs, and halogen incandescents all come in a wide range of color temperatures.

• Buy covered globes or A-lamps — bulbs shaped like old-fashioned incandescents — rather than spirals if you can see the bulb and aren’t a fan of the spiral look.

• Otherwise, just go with halogen incandescents and don’t sweat the fact that CFLs are more energy-efficient than halogens. Your still saving over a traditional incandescent and the glow is pretty.

So why not LEDs? LEDs point light in a single direction, although new LED-containing A-lamps are designed to compensate for that by using prisms or special coatings. But all that extra technology makes them expensive — probably not worth it for your bedside lamp, which isn’t a big energy hog anyway.

Recessed Ceiling Lights (Kitchens, Family Rooms): LEDs

• Energy efficiency is key in high-use areas.

• 80% energy savings over incandescents.

• Bulb life (up to 50,000 hours) much longer than CFLs.

• Shine light a single direction — rather than glowing.

• Brighter than halogens or CFLs.

Overhead recessed lighting in the kitchen or family room gets lots of use, so energy efficiency is a big consideration; plus, you need bulbs that point light in a single direction so the light actually escapes the can or fixture.

LED reflector lamps, the flat-topped bulbs typically used as floodlights or spotlights, are designed to shine light in a single direction. And that means you’ll get a brighter look with less energy output than CFLs or halogens.

New conversion kits let you put LEDs into your old can fixtures designed for screw-in bulbs.

A word of caution: LEDs don’t dim well unless they’re connected to a wall dimming switch specifically designed for them. You can get LED-compatible dimmers at big-box stores starting at around $30. Same goes for CFLs.

If you do decide on CFLs or halogen incandescents for a warmer quality of light:

• Buy reflector-lamp style bulbs, not A-lamps or globes, so the light isn’t trapped inside the can.

• If you have multiple cans, you can probably get away with a lower-wattage halogen incandescent reflector bulb and save energy while still having plenty of light.

Bathroom Vanity Fixture: Halogen Incandescents

• Better for showing color and texture than CFLs or LEDs.

Lighting over the bathroom vanity is a highly personal lighting choice, especially when there are women in the house. If the light isn’t flattering to your skin tone or makes it hard to apply makeup, you’ll be dissatisfied.

That’s why halogen incandescents, with their pleasing light, are a good bet.

However, if the bathroom where you primp is a high-traffic area and you’re concerned about energy use, experiment with CFLs in a warm color temperature and get a separate lighted mirror for your beauty routine.

Stairwell Light: LEDs

• Inconvenient fixtures are a good place to use long-lasting LEDs.

How many times are you willing to drag out a ladder and change the bulb in a tough-to-reach fixture? Take advantage of LEDs’ long life by putting them in spots you don’t want to revisit often:

• Fixtures hanging in stairwells

• Track lighting suspended from a cathedral ceiling

• Cabinets

• Ledges

• Tray ceilings

• Recessed areas

Outdoor Floodlight: Halogen Incandescent

• For security and efficiency, use fixtures with daylight/occupancy sensors.

• Since outdoor lights aren’t used often, not worth investing in LEDs.

• CFLs don’t come on easily in cold weather.

• CFLs don’t last as long as advertised when turned on and off frequently.

If you don’t want to get new fixtures with sensors, you can buy a sensor attachment that screws into each socket.

Rarely Used Fixtures: Low-Cost Bulbs

• Opt for what’s easy on your wallet.

• Use the most energy-efficient bulbs, such as LEDs, in most-used fixtures.

If the total yearly hours for the fixtures in your closets, dining room chandeliers, and the naked bulb in your attic are low, go cheap.

Related:

Want to know more about picking light bulbs for aesthetics?

A strategic plan for buying pricey LEDs

What to know about CFLs