I guess it is quite a bit of work. However, it would not seem nearly as labor intensive, if I was successful. I LOVE gardening. I also have an outside garden using raised beds. However, I prefer the clean environment growing inside provides. I cant stand having to fight off blights, pests, PM, and the other outdoor garden maladies. Most of these problems came to the fore after consecutive days of heavy rain, or high humidity. I prefer having the ability to control the indoor environment. It felt fantastic having garden fresh cherry tomatoes for salads from January through March this past winter. I had great success with Sungold cherry tomatoes last summer. I absolutely loved the taste of Sungolds, and so did my parents, I would love to be able to surprise them with a decent amount of them this fall. However, I was not able to acquire Sungold seeds in time for the raised beds this summer. I have tried starting my seeds under HID light, HO T5, and standard fluorescent lights. That's why I am starting to question the cleanliness of the air quality in my growing areas. My starts stunt almost immediately upon emergence. They stunt whether close to light or far from light, fertilizer or no fertilizer. The problem looks the same every time. I have seen other threads and pictures on the internet with people having the same looking problem as mine. The consensus seems to be a P deficiency. It cannot be P though, I have used Bloom fertilizers upon emergence to try to give them adequate P. I have provided a humidity dome and heat mat to avoid cooling that could possibly have been occurring. I have made sure the water has been at least somewhat warm when irrigating. I am likely going to start some seeds near a sunny window in my home to see if it just the localized air quality of my growing environment.

No-green-thumb .. what a nice post to read, thank you. My household is crazy at times, but I wouldn't trade my DH, my girls, dogs, cat, chickens or Mr. Bun for the world. I'm very glad the instructions that I put up helped you all out! Angelcub .. the people across the street very recently painted their home the same yellow as our house. I had posted for suggestions on whether to repaint or not, and everyone here very graciously helped me out, including Squirrel doing some wonderful mock-ups for me of different colors. IMO, it's just a little too much of the same thing, leaning just a tiny bit toward the look of a showroom of vintage metal porch furniture, perhaps? Leahcate, this is exactly what I was wondering. I like the wicker mixed in with the metal furniture too. I love the picture that I posted of the metal glider painted the lime green and then they picked up that color on the cushions of the wicker. I like the two wicker chairs flanking the large glider that we have. I wonder how a wicker swing would look on the other half of the porch? Then do the same thing, paint the glider a brighter color, and pick up the color in the wicker cushion. Paint the little glider and chairs to match, but put them on the back deck .. that way there is continuity from the front to back of the house. Before I can put a metal set out there, I need to buy a retractable awning for the back deck though .. I've always wanted one for out there.

I like the thick 'wrapped" colums. I think the stone half wall is OK but your stoop is a decent size for a stoop...mine is similar but judging from the space next to your front doors, yours is probably a bit bigger and I find that mine is a bit too small. A half wall on each side is going to take up and make your stoop space feel tighter. And I don't know that they will stand out much against the new stone facade for the cos. I think railings would be better and more open. And maybe you don't have to go with the usual thin black wrought iron. On our last house we rebuilt the front stoop and had the contractor build white painted "chippendale" style railings. It was not expensive. When you start looking around you might find there are more options on railings than than the typical ones you aren't too fond of.

Thank you both so much for the response! Yes we both agree about the grills. We had thought about adding an area for the grills out in the yard. Like more of a patio w pergola or roof if some sort. We had comfortable rocking chairs but I moved them to the front porch. I live in southern Illinois and we sit outside a lot and we’re sick of the cushions always being damp. That’s why we got furniture without cushions. Yes I agree we need landscaping around the back. We have a lot of landscaping in the front. We have 3 dogs and they run around the backyard and in and out of our lake usually on weekends. I’ve just never done anything out back yet. I’m not sure of what kind of edging I’d want to use. I’m not real big on the retaining wall blocks. Here is the view from the back porch. I’ve got 3 small raise garden beds.