Let’s Take this Outside

Your backyard as a vacation spot

Best Life

If you are anything like us, you live outside as often as the weather will allow. We drink our coffee in the morning sitting on the lanai overlooking our flower and vegetable garden. We have cocktails by (or in!) the pool, and dinner in the garden. Increasingly, we’re seeing our friends and clients utilizing their outdoor spaces for everyday living as well. Why limit your living to the square footage inside your home?

Porches, pergolas, patios and pools.

Like anything else, trends in outdoor spaces come and go. Water features, cocktail pools (rather than full scale swimming pools) fire pits and pergola type structures are in right now. Low maintenance landscapes are popular, for obvious reasons. Using your backyard space for everyday living doesn’t have to be a huge commitment or expense. Defining a sitting or dining area with potted plants, outdoor furniture and adding a solar light fixture as a chandelier can do the trick. Of course some homeowners are exceeding the cost of interior renovations with outside projects; pool houses, outdoor kitchens and covered living rooms.

Does an outdoor space actually add value?

Definitely–though not *always in terms of actual dollars. If I show a buyer two similar homes, one with a beautiful existing, mature planted outdoor space and the other with a vacant backyard, there is no question which one they will choose.  Buyers often don’t have much of an imagination. If they can’t see it in front of them, they typically cannot visualize it. The majority of the time, buyers will go for the finished product rather than the project. Particularly in places like Aiken, where outdoor living is possible for much of the year, the return on investment for outdoor living spaces is excellent. For more ideas on creating your own outdoor space, check out some of the Best Life picks for beautiful spaces.

Privacy from the Neighbors

If privacy is an issue in your yard, consider this when planning an outdoor living space. Outdoor living spaces tend to have the benefit of enhanced privacy. Who wants to have a few friends over for cocktails in the garden to watch the neighbors in their adjacent backyard? Planting a treed buffer between yards, or screening of some sort is key to enjoying outdoor living. Vine covered pergolas, living green walls and vertical gardens are excellent choices for consideration.

It’s a lifestyle thing

We love our homes and the safety and privacy they provide, but there’s something quite magical about dinner with friends under the twinkly lights of the pergola. Morning coffee tastes better by the pool as the sun comes up. It’s all part of a healthy lifestyle, staying connected with nature and living our Best Life!