Dressing Up Our “Yard”

September 20, 2015 (by Angela)

This past week and this weekend, Jim and I have worked on dressing up our yard a bit to make it more appealing and more enjoyable for the fun fall weather. Some of the other things needed to enhance our outdoor living area have been ordered and should arrive this coming week.

First, I ordered a name sign, complete with motto, because both Jim and I think it is fun to see the various name signs at the sites of other campers. After the demise of our yard Macaw, I thought it would be nice to once again add some color at our site. This time we went with yard flag stand and some season-appropriate yard flags.

Our name & motto yard sign

Our yard flag stand and one of our interchangeable flags

We’d been looking at and pricing mums in the area. When I went to the grocery store on Thursday morning, I lucked into a mums sale, getting the size we were considering in one of the colors we had agreed upon for half the regular cost.

Lovely mums

He and I had to toss the worn-out lawn chairs we had when we began our RV adventure, so we’d been debating how to fill the need for outdoor seating. We had noticed some wooden Adirondack-type chairs along the roads we travel near the lake. After a couple of inquiries, Jim ordered us a pair of wooden chairs that we felt were very affordably priced (also supporting local artists). Although we do not have room or desire to take these chairs with us on the road next year, we can enjoy them while we have them. Next summer, we can give them to a family member, donate them to Green Acres, or list them for sale.

Kilz coat completed

The chairs are made out of untreated wood. This fact makes it necessary to paint the chairs, but we had planned to do that any way. After some debate, we decided to put a coat of Kilz on the bare wood and follow that with a semi-gloss exterior paint in the color of coral. We’ve ordered some weather resistant outdoor pillows, in contrasting colors, to use in the chairs. We had an extra small folding table that we could easily move to the outside living area, so it is placed in between our chairs.

Jim taking an apple break from putting Kilz on the wood

Yes, I did do some painting, though Jim did most of it.

Coral color goes on over the Kilz

It’s coming together

In addition, I went looking for fire pits on clearance, and I found one that I thought was nice. Jim put it together, and we picked up some firewood to use. We also have a small outside cooking area on the side of our 5th Wheel. This is another option for us to use for our outside living area. Perhaps one day soon the part will come in to repair the awning arm (see story HERE), too. Then we really will be set up.

Wood next to our new Fire Pit

The final addition to our “nice weather” outdoor living area will be a small HD flat screen TV. There is an electrical outlet and cable hook up on the inside of our basement door, so we can move our outdoor table to the side of the camper, and we will be able to watch football, NASCAR races, or whatever else while we enjoy our updated yard space.

When we get the other items that are on order in, I’ll add a photograph of our finished outdoor living area on our site.

UPDATE: Here’s us using the outdoor living area.