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Right now, something of an animal preserve. Deer, buzzards, birds of prey, snakes, field mice, lizards, insects, wild boar, foxes, coyotes too!.
Not a fan of all of those, but enjoy seeing the occasional deer in the yard, and between my bird feeders and berries on trees, I'm fortunate to see all kinds of birds here.
We currently have a problem with coyotes going after dogs and kids. Those you can have.
Porch - usually roofed and usually at the front of the house, unless it's designated as 'back porch' or 'side porch'. Great place for rocking chairs and watching the world go by.
Patio - usually not roofed although they can be. Usually at grade (on the ground) and usually at the back of the house.
Deck - like a patio, but raised off the ground.
A Florida Room is a lot like an enclosed patio, usually roofed over and screened sides.
There's also the lanai, which is sort of a cross between a porch and a patio. It's a transitional place between the enclosed living spaces inside and the big outdoors. It also shades the sides of the house to keep it cooler and cools the outside air before it gets inside the house.
As to why any of these spaces? It all depends on the individual house, it's location and occupants.
We had a deck in back and replaced it with a paver patio. It’s basically an outdoor family “room.” We cook and eat out there, relax, read, watch the kids play in the yard, enjoy nature, etc. It’s especially nice to have friends and family over for entertaining at sunset. It’s fun to add furniture and plants, etc., though costly. We love it.
I guess my house designer could read my subconscious to what I really wanted.
if you could get away with it, i think a patio is better than a deck (even though they say it doesnt help with resale value). it costs less to build and requires very little ongoing maintenance.
We've always had a deck or a patio in the back of our houses. We have both right now. Either provides a more private space to sit, read, enjoy a glass of something, etc. It also provides a place for a grill and an outdoor eating space. When our children were young, I was able to put a gate at the entrance to the deck and allow them to play on the deck while I did things inside knowing they were safe. I could still see them.
Patios aren't anything new. They've existed for many years. I grew up in a 1960's house and one of the first upgrades my parents did was installing a patio.
If you live in a forest, I don’t think you want a patio. I think, if anything, you need a porch or deck. A patio is essentially an open, outdoor room. With the forest around you, I think you would be constantly sweeping leaves and twigs off a patio. With a porch + overhang, you’d have some protection from constant blown around detritus. And I think a porch, or deck suits a woodsy setting better than a patio.
But patio, deck, or porch are essentially outdoor rooms, which you choose to use however you wish.
After 20+ years of a having a deck high above the forest floor, I decided I never again wanted one of those. I especially do not like to have to tramp through rooms to get to another, outdoor room. I dreamed for years of having a back door just steps from my kitchen. I have close to that now, though not in a forest.
Oh my gosh,my husband and I call ourselves "porch sitters." By that we also mean "patio sitters." We sit out on our patio (in the back) or our front porch (or both) just about every single day and/or evening.
We have a HUGE patio - it's probably 40' x 30' or maybe even bigger, and we're about to add onto it since we are adding a pool in the back yard. Part of it is covered and part isn't. On the part that isn't, we have a table as well as a fire pit and a total of 8 chairs. We also have a covered section with 4 more chairs and an outdoor rug, as well as our dog house and a few occasional tables. And at the other end of the patio, near the fire pit, we have a smaller covered area with two grills. We love to entertain and love that we have plenty of places for people to sit and also move around.
Our back yard is about half an acre with woods behind it so no, we don't step out into a forest but we do have plenty of trees and wildlife close at hand.
To us, our patio - aka our outdoor living area - is just an extension of our living room and our house in general.
We love to sit outside when it's raining.
We wouldn't have considered a house without a front porch and at least room and a design acclimated to a large patio in the back. (We added a larger patio and fire pit in our former house but thankfully the previous owners here had already added a huge patio and fire pit.)
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