Home ownership seems to bring about the entertaining beast. That would be my partner S. He gets a little nuts about entertaining and making sure that he has enough food for everyone. In the summer everyone loves to entertain outside, and moving from a metropolis to a small town, we don’t have any patio furniture.
Presenting empty patio.
The deck can’t fit more than the two chairs. The only problem with the patio is that there is this nice tree above it.
Da da dummmmm.
Now you might be thinking, that tree could be great for some natural shade. And you would be right. But you forgot about the birds. And the pooh. I don’t think you want to entertain guests on a patio where the chances of getting poohed on are quite high.
Uh oh.
So the dilemma is, do you really want to get new patio furniture, just to get it, and your guests poohed on? My only other thought is to get a small gazebo tent to put over it, and then scrub off said pooh in the fall when you put it away.
What would you do?
I love when people say “pooh” or “poohed.” I grew up saying pooh, and then I moved away and was somehow convinced it was impolite to leave off the p at the end, and I forced to start saying “poop.” So between Mike Rowe, who refers to it exclusively as “pooh” on Dirty Jobs, and now you Chelsie, I feel empowered to return to my original terminology!
But onto your question, I think I’d get the patio furniture and take my chances. I kind of like the idea of someone getting poohed on at a dinner party– I feel like it would make for a great, memorable evening. But I wouldn’t enjoy cleaning all the pooh off the furniture before the guests arrived– do you have somewhere you could store the furniture when it’s not in use?
We have a shed that we can store the furniture in in the winter, but it wouldn’t be practical to keep moving it all the time unfortunately. Most patio sets are pretty big too, with 4-6 chairs, a big table, an umbrella.
The upside of the gazebo tent is that they usually have mesh sides that we could hang down because the side of the patio that isn’t the deck looks right into the neighbors yard via the chainlink fence. The mesh could create a little bit of privacy.
But really, the biggest worry is still the pooh. I don’t know if you’d want to go to that dinner party!
Mesh sides would be good for the mosquitoes, too. And anything meant to go outdoors will be a durable fabric that you can hose off come winter.
The downside of the tented gazebo that it is pretty much in direct sunlight all day, which weakens said durable defenses. And yes, then you only spray and clean it once a year, instead of constant cleaning of the furniture. And gazebo tent things aren’t terribly cheap, especially if they are well made.
But it’s got it’s points, in that it provides shade from said direct sunlight, and less pooh.
Mesh sides would also keep bugs out, which is an added bonus. I think it’s a goood idea — or at least an umbrella, to catch the pooh.
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