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Have a 40 X 10 second floor covered deck (above the walkout basement), not screened. Use it all the time even in cold weather for grilling and hanging out and watching the wildlife. It's the most valued space in the home. We don't have a big problem with mosquitoes.
It all depends on your lifestyle. If you enjoy being outdoors you will like a screened in porch or covered deck.
We just moved into our house in December. We ate lunch on our back screened porch at least three times in the last week and sat on the unscreened front porch at least once every day. My wife is sitting on the front porch now, on a call to her aunt in Brazil.
The back screen porch also has a long area that’s only about 4 feet wide. I have our water rower set up there and exercise several times a week there.
We considered a screened in porch before putting in a terraced paver patio. One reason we didn’t is because it would have blocked the sun from shining into our family room.
We live in east TN, so not that far from Atlanta, we had a screened porch, but due to the awful green pine pollen, the blowing rain, and the winter cold, we didn't use it much. Last summer we had the screened porch converted to a sunroom with glass all around that opens up. Now we use it all the time. I do my exercises and yoga there, we sit and enjoy the view of the golf course, we have coffee and wine out there, read, watch the sun set. It's a real room that we use all the time now, where before it was difficult to enjoy without covering and uncovering the furniture each time it raineed, and cleaning the pollen up every time we wanted to use it. In the heat of the summer now, we have to shade a couple windows, but with the ceiling fan and a rotating fan, it's do-able. but the res of the year it is the bomb.
In the Dallas area, I screened in our back porch spring before last, and my wife adores it (with subsequent benefits to me). I also put in lighted ceiling fans.
Since she's been working from home over the last couple of years, it's become her second home office when the weather is nice, and she uses it for meditation. During the summer she has it filled with potted plants.
In the Spring and Fall Mrs. NBP sits on it on the weekends. That will change this year as she's retiring in June. During the Summer she'll spend most of the morning on it.
I'll eat breakfast on it nearly every morning once it warms up in the Spring through to the Fall when it gets cold. Unless it is really hot in the Summer I'll eat dinner on it.
We had a screened in porch in our back yard for a number of years with a deck just outside of that. When we did a remodel 10 yrs ago we built a sunroom where the porch was and that gets used pretty much everyday all day. We extended the deck area to around a 20x40. The sunroom has two doors on either side, one leads out to a covered outdoor kitchen with bar stools with an extended area for my grills and smokers and deep fryers. In florida we can be outside 24/7/365 so we have a 65" tv outside to in joy watching football and hockey with our friends and family. We have a nice 8 person couch with a fire pit sitting next to the kitchen were we spend lots of evenings. On the opposite side of the deck under two palm trees we have our large Jacuzzi that we use year round. I am a lover of our warm summers and can sit outside most evenings listening to music just chill-axing. My favorite is spending New Years Eve in the Jacuzzi with my wife under the stars while watching the ball drop on the tv and seeing fire works all around us overhead from the neighbors. I am not a fan of screened in rooms I always feel im in a bird cage. I need to be outside with no walls.
We live in east TN, so not that far from Atlanta, we had a screened porch, but due to the awful green pine pollen, the blowing rain, and the winter cold, we didn't use it much. Last summer we had the screened porch converted to a sunroom with glass all around that opens up. Now we use it all the time. I do my exercises and yoga there, we sit and enjoy the view of the golf course, we have coffee and wine out there, read, watch the sun set. It's a real room that we use all the time now, where before it was difficult to enjoy without covering and uncovering the furniture each time it raineed, and cleaning the pollen up every time we wanted to use it. In the heat of the summer now, we have to shade a couple windows, but with the ceiling fan and a rotating fan, it's do-able. but the res of the year it is the bomb.
We had a covered and screened back porch (called "lanai") in Florida. For several years we used it very little. It seems that when we wanted to go sit on the lanai, it was too hot and muggy or the furniture was covered with pollen. We had to wipe the chairs and tables off every day or two or they would be covered in pollen. A real PITA.
Then, several years ago we decided to have sliding aluminum/acrylic windows installed. Best move we ever made with regard to house usage. Now we use that room all the time. Eat lunch out there nearly every day. We have double sliding doors to the lanai and we open them the first thing every morning and close them before going to bed. The AC keeps the room just as cool as the rest of the house. Lots of sunlight, bright, and cheery. We have a ceiling fan out there though we seldom use the fan. Great view and great place to sit and watch the golfers go by... and sometimes one of the golfers is ME.
I lived in Florida for a number of years, we used our screen lanai daily. I now live in the Caribbean, and we use our veranda and outdoor living area daily as well.
Northern Wisconsin could not be more different from Atlanta or Florida, but I am going to add my two cents' anyway --
We have an 17' x 9.5' north-facing sunroom that faces our street that is almost entirely glass on two sides. When designing the home, we were unsure whether to make it a screened porch or a covered porch or a sunroom, but decided on the sunroom thinking it was large enough for many uses, although we envisioned it as a kind of breakfast room. We also thought it could be used as a guest room or even could be easily converted to a third bedroom when if we ever needed to sell it.
However, the sunroom has turned into my favorite daytime room! It has a comfortable sofa, coffee table, and a bookcase, and so it has actually turned into my personal library room. I spend about 50% of my daytime hours there, just watching the clouds and the trees (we live in a very rural and very heavily wooded neighborhood). And, unlike a covered porch, I use it virtually every single day in every season.
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