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The Great Outdoor Living Event: Summer

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Welcome to the Great Outdoor Living Event! I’ve teamed up with a group of bloggers to share our outdoor living spaces. I’m so excited to share my outdoor spaces today! Summer is my favorite time of year! We truly live outside during warm weather.

If you don’t know me, my name is Emy and I live in central Maryland with my kids, husband and lazy dog. We bought our home 3 years ago and are slowly making it into our dream home. It was love at first sight when we drove up the long driveway and saw a home surrounded by woods. Although we’re less than 10 minutes from town, it feels like we’re in the middle of nowhere. Our home is truly our oasis.

My husband and I grew up in Texas, so Maryland is very different for us. The winters are hard for us to get through, but the other 3 seasons make it totally worth living here. As a result, we spend every moment outside that we can, since we’re trapped inside all winter. Today, I’m sharing 3 of my favorite spots to hang out in the summer. There are a few other spots on our property that still need work. But you can check out our kid’s treehouse. An update will be coming soon because we’ve added a couple of swings to it.

As you’re reading this, our yard already looks different. We’re having some trees removed, so our house is going to look and feel a lot different. I have mixed emotions about removing the trees, but in the end, we need piece of mind to feel safe here. Giant trees looming right over your home does not inspire confidence in wind storms. Plus, our sunny spot gets smaller every year.

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Welcome to Casa Semigloss.

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This is our front yard pond. It is currently home to 2 bullfrogs, 20 million bullfrog eggs and 4 goldfish. Last year we had 11 frogs, but I think my dog ate them. 🙁

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Mr Frog is laying between 2 rocks, but he’s hard to see. I didn’t want to disturb his slumber.

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We recently expended our rock area around the pond. I could have made it into a garden, but I was feeling lazy. Now it reminds me of my grandma’s rock gardens. We plan on adding plenty of flower pots and plants. I just bought this big brass one from a flea market.

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We have a small bistro table sitting on the rocks until we expand our front patio. I envisioned using it to drink coffee in the mornings with my husband, but my kids love it too. We added a few chairs that I was supposed to get rid of and eat dinner out there while Mr Froggy sings to us. It’s funny how romantic moments include kids now.

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Most evenings, you can find us here on the back patio enjoying a glass of wine.

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There’s still a lot of work to do out here. My husband just power-washed this part of the house, so it’s ready for me to paint everything this weekend. The hot tub came with the house and we use it all winter long.

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I built the bench over the weekend to use as a coffee table out here. Now I want to build a million more.

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This is our weekday firepit. It’s good for small fires that we don’t want to last very long. We also have a larger firepit in the woods, but it needs a lot of work. It doesn’t feel like a weekend unless we have a fire.

This view is my favorite. We love watching the chipmunks, squirrels and birds. When the trees are removed, this area is going to change a lot. All of the trees marked in orange are getting removed. We’re hoping to make a giant pond back here.

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I’ll miss the trees, but it will be nice to see the stars! The front tree used to be covered in ivy and is now mostly dead.

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Our deck is located off of the sunroom. My husband built this all by himself (with our help here and there.) We spend most of the summer here, by our above ground pool. Even the dog loves it out here. I stained the deck last fall and it looks horrible now. Plus, it’s super hot, so we had to add a rug to keep from burning our feet.

We keep it pretty simple out here. Most of the time, it’s covered in pool floaties. 😉

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We eat lunch out here a lot during the summer, which is nice because the table stays in the shade almost all day.

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We added window boxes to the deck for herbs since we were not able to start our garden this year.

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It’s magical to sit out here at night. Citronella is a must though! We have a small area of wetlands at the back of our property that I affectionately call my “swamp,” so mosquitoes are bad. At night, it’s so much fun to watch the bats swoop around and catch bugs.

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We added a hibiscus tree to the deck this year. It’s doing good so far. The flowers are so pretty! Fingers crossed that I can keep it alive over winter!

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And here’s where we hang out most days. Having a pool means that you look forward to the hottest days of the year! If you need me, I’ll be on a floatie, sipping on a cold drink! 😉

The Great Outdoor Living Event

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out my friend Jennifer at Jenron Designs! You’re going to love her outdoor living style!

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Semigloss Design | Jenron Designs | Eclectic Twist | A Happy Home in Holland | The Project Pile

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17 Comments

  1. Emy your space is so serine and beautiful. I image sharing cups of coffee or glasses of vino depending on the time of day. I LOVE your Koi pond, we had one in our last home, which I miss, but wild life around here would surly use it like a sushi bar.

    1. Thanks Jennifer. I’m afraid of the wildlife getting into them too. We have cheap goldfish for now to see what happens.

  2. Emy, your woods are amazing! It looks so peaceful. And that pool looks so refreshing, my hubby kept planting trees where I wanted to put a pool,lol! And I did spy with my little eye, your bullfrog sitting on those rocks, too cool! Have a wonderful 4th of July!!

  3. Emy, I really love your outdoor space!

    I do try to make the best of our own tiny garden but something like this would be a dream come true for me…..the woods, the patio, the pond and…. the pool! I could totally imagine myself sitting here sipping a vino or two. 🙂

  4. Emy, love your spaces and this is going to sound weird but I LOVE your trees too! You’d think living in CO we would be surrounded by trees, sadly there aren’t any east of the mountains, plain sad prairie. So I was literally drooling over your foresty yard! And the deck and pool areas are amazing, I can totally imagine spending afternoons on hot summer days lounging then taking a dip, repeat. The planter boxes are so lovely too, I’m a sucker for a copper finish!

    1. I know exactly what you’re saying about trees. We lived in Sicily for 3 years and I would get so homesick for trees every fall. I didn’t even grow up around tall trees, but somehow trees felt more like home.

  5. Hooray for lovely outdoor spaces! I bet that hibiscus will do fine in the sunroom over winter.

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