Charmed Life: Porch Time!

As often happens here in the Midwest we went directly from spring with highs in the low 40's to summer with a high temperature of 80 degrees. Perfect weather for a good porch cleaning.

Usually I try to have the porch set up for spring before Easter. But I just couldn't bring myself to dunk my hand in a bucket of water when the temperatures were hovering closer to 45 than 65.

Last Friday as soon as I rung off with all of you, I filled my bucket and headed for the porch

It was a mess, as it usually is after the winter.

The best way to get rid of five months of winter dirt and spring pollen is to vacuum the floor a couple of times. Make sure to replace the vacuum bag when you're done, you don't want all of that grime and pollen let loose in the house.

Then use a power washer or the "jet" setting on your hose nozzle and blast away the loose stuff.
Then you're ready for the big guns:

Dirtex cuts the dirt with just 2 tablespoons mixed into very hot water. This year I tried a different mop and I've got to say that I think this mop worked the best of any of the varieties I've tried.

It's just a simple wringer mop from Menards. But it's firm sponge handled the dirt and grime beautifully. Two moppings with a squirt from the jet set hose between them and the floor was looking pretty good. It took me all afternoon Friday to vacuum and mop the porch and I still needed to make a pass with my Swifter mop to get the last of the grime up. But it was time for cocktails with Bob and Linda followed by a dinner out and dancing to some live music provided by my friend Wendy's band Ace at Luna Art + Wine.

All I can say is it must have been the warm weather, or spring fever, or Bob's wicked Manhattans because once Prince Charming heard the music this happened. I knew PC was a good, maybe even wonderful, dancer. But I had no idea PC had "the moves".

Saturday dawned with bright sunshine and continued warm weather. I bounded out of bed, ready to tackle day two of the porch project. Prince Charming needed a little more rest after his wild night of dancing and charming the ladies.

All of the porch furniture came out of the shed for washing and mending.

Washing station

Mending station

Last year I tried to get all of this work done in one day. In my rush I ignored wicker that had come loose from legs and peeling paint. This year, I've called a truce with myself over my sense of how long something "should" take versus how long it actually takes. We added this porch when we bought the house seven years ago. So after trying and failing for seven years to clean the porch and all the furniture in one day, this year I scheduled a two day cleaning. I was much happier and the process was a joy rather than a grind.

Our friend and handyman Emrah suggested using super glue to reattach wicker. I hate super glue. It's messy, my fingers always stick together before whatever I'm gluing has a chance to dry. But since I was taking things slow this year, I had time to think. I was going to need something to hold the loose wicker pieces in place. I had a lot of loose wicker and not enough clamps. Besides the clamps were too big for many of the small legs.

So I came up with this!

Rubber bands worked as wonderful clamps to hold the wicker in place. I wrapped the wicker around the legs, put the rubber bands around it, and pulled the rubber band away from the part I wanted to glue. No stuck fingers, just re-glued wicker!

After that it was time to paint.

Grab our first lunch on the porch.

Chicken salad on a bed of spring greens, pink lady apples and extra sharp cheddar cheese. Yum!

The paint I used only took two hours to dry. So after lunch all of the furniture was ready to be put in place.

I'm trying a new arrangement this year. Prince Charming isn't sure he likes it. I'll let you know what he decides because in our family, PC has the best eye for proportion and so he gets to make final decisions about furniture placement.

In June everything has to come back off the porch and we go through this whole routine again to wash off all the tree pollen. That's when we put the rugs down and really decorate. So if PC still hates this arrangement, we'll change it.

By the time I put everything in it's place for this spring version of the porch and fluffed the last cushion it was getting late. I headed in to get cleaned up. When I came back out, look what that Prince Charming had done!