Room
Patio or Deck
A patio lives outdoors, which puts everything on it under a clock the indoor rooms never feel: sun makes plastic brittle, damp gets into fabric and end grain, and a season of putting things off arrives as a replacement cost. Start with the surface you walk on and the rail you lean on, because those are the only things out here that can put someone in hospital. Everything after that, the cushions and the grill and the pots, is about making the space usable within one trip through the back door.
The 6 micro zones, in working order
A micro zone is one session, not a whole day. Finish one before you start the next.
- The Outdoor Seating Zone (45-75 min)
Seats people can drop into without checking them first, with the cushions kept dry. - The Grill and Outdoor Cooking Zone (60-90 min)
Cook over fire without leaving the grill to find a tool or wondering if there is gas. - The Outdoor Dining Zone (30-45 min)
Feed people outdoors without carrying the kitchen out in four trips. - The Garden and Plant Care Zone (45-75 min)
Keep the containers alive and keep everything that feeds them off the ground and out of reach. - The Outdoor Storage Zone (45-75 min)
Get the cushions under a lid within a minute of the first drop of rain. - The Surface, Rail, and Safety Zone (45-75 min)
The structure you stand on and lean against, kept sound and kept clear.
For this room
- {'label': 'Where to start', 'text': 'Do the Surface, Rail, and Safety Zone first, on a dry morning, before you touch a single cushion. If the boards and the railing are not sound, everything you arrange on top of them is decoration.'}
- {'label': 'Cleaning note', 'text': 'Out here, cleaning is how you inspect. You will never spot a popped fastener, a soft board end, or a spider web in a burner tube while sitting in a chair. You spot them with a brush in your hand and your face close to the thing.'}
- {'label': 'The trap', 'text': 'The trap is storing things outdoors that cannot live outdoors. A cushion left out overnight in dew, a cardboard box inside the deck box, a bag of charcoal resting on the ground: each is fine for a week and ruined by autumn. If it cannot take a night of rain, it belongs behind a door.'}