ᐅ Experience Exchange: Terrace Use / Canopy Installation

Created on: 12 Feb 2015 08:54
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Musketier
Musketier12 Feb 2015 08:54
Hello everyone,

We moved into our house in August 2014. Shortly after moving in, the outdoor area including the terrace was completed. So far, everything looks quite nice.

What’s currently bothering me a bit is related to the fact that we always walk around the house barefoot or in socks. So when you want to go from the living room to the terrace, to the trash bins or compost (the quickest way is via the terrace), you obviously need some shoes. At the moment, the shoes are kept in the living room due to the weather. It already looks a bit messy.

When our little son can put on his own shoes and leaves them wherever he wants, the situation probably won’t improve. Plus, moisture and some dirt get tracked into the living room.

One idea we are considering is adding a full or partial roof over the terrace. That way, shoes could stay outside, and our cat would have a dry spot. However, even with the roof, some summer heat protection would still be necessary, so it won’t be cheap. We will need heat protection in the form of an awning anyway, but I’m hesitant to spend a lot of money just because of a few shoes and the cat, even though the money is available right now.

How have you solved or planned this kind of situation?
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Bauexperte
12 Feb 2015 10:13
Good morning,
Musketier schrieb:

What bothers me at the moment is related to the fact that we always go barefoot or wear socks inside the house. When you want to go from the living room to the terrace, to the trash bins or compost (quickest access via the terrace), you obviously need some kind of shoes. At the moment, due to the weather, they’re standing around in the living room. It already looks a bit untidy. When our little son can put on his shoes himself and drops them wherever he wants, the situation probably won’t get any better. Plus, you bring moisture and some dirt into the living room.

Help – did you build a museum? I hope not! What’s so bad about a house looking lived in? Children, after all, don’t follow adult cleanliness rules like robots (or can’t)?

Just place a runner or a dark bath towel in front of the regularly used terrace door and enjoy your life in the new house 😉 😀

Best regards, Bauexperte
Musketier12 Feb 2015 11:11
Nope.. definitely not a museum. But when you trip over your own shoes while maneuvering around the equipment—shoes that you yourself have left lying around as you please—that annoys me, even though I’m usually not picky about that kind of thing.
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Manu1976
12 Feb 2015 11:47
I can completely understand Musketier. It’s the same with us. The terrace always looks messy because we keep shoes and rain boots on a shelf on the terrace – sometimes even in the living room. I find that really annoying too. By the way, our terrace is partially covered, but that’s not enough when the wind blows the rain at an angle.

For this reason, I always recommend having a direct access from the utility room to the terrace (experience makes you wise), and we planned this accordingly in our new house. Unfortunately, a solution probably won’t be possible in the near future. Either the living room or the terrace ends up suffering. But the kids will grow up eventually :-)
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Wastl
12 Feb 2015 12:48
We have a shoe tray in the corner behind the living room door where each person keeps one pair of garden shoes, and a doormat in front of the patio door. It doesn’t look untidy.
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ypg
12 Feb 2015 14:05
For outdoors, there are also these garden plastic shoes – they can stay outside in the rain all year round. However, it’s not advisable to use them when they are wet 😉

At our place, everything is stylish and well-designed… but honestly: I live here! That means my clogs end up here and there in front of every patio door in every room. And my kitchen also has a mouse corner. And next to the fireplace, there’s always some dirt and kindling in plastic somehow. And so on…

I make sure that everyday items in my home have neutral colors. That means: our garden shoes are white or gray, there’s no colorful plastic stuff in the kitchen, and many things are stored in baskets.
So my advice is: stylish slippers that match the house design on a nice mat (or the tray mentioned by [USER=9582]@Wastl)