Picture this: it’s a cool night in late spring. You’re tucked into bed, and the only sounds are crickets, an owl somewhere in the trees, and maybe a coyote far off in the distance. In the morning, you wake up to birdsong and a garden just beyond the windows.
For Heidi and Doug, that isn’t a daydream. It’s how they spend most of the year.
Their porch has its own bed, and they’ve slept out there as early as April and as late as November. Their comfort cutoff is a night that drops much below 40 degrees, though a heated blanket can stretch things a little further. The night that finally sent them indoors one fall? Snow started landing on their faces.
“It is like we’re sleeping outside, but in the comfort of our own bed. Going to work indoors the next day is also easier when you’ve already spent the whole night outdoors.” ~ Heidi
It’s no surprise the porch has become one of their favorite rooms in the house. Their garden is their getaway without ever leaving home, and the porch is an extension of it.
A garden decades in the making
Over many years, Heidi and Doug have turned their yard into something closer to a nature preserve than a lawn. Speaking of lawns, the one that used to be there took an hour and 45 minutes to mow. They spend that much time and more tending the garden each week now, but it’s far more enjoyable, and what they’ve created supports the natural world around them.
Where there used to be grass, there are now winding paths, native plants, perennials chosen for birds and pollinators, and a pond deep enough to cool off in on a hot July afternoon, as their dog Moo can confirm. Their garden has even been featured on a garden tour hosted by the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
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They’ll tell you it’s never really finished. Each year brings new plantings, a new path, or a boulder moved a few feet to the left. The porch is where they sit back and take in what they’ve built. As Heidi puts it:
“I see our porch as a bridge between the interior of our home and the garden. It’s a special place that protects us from the elements while allowing us to soak it all in too.” ~Heidi
At night, with the waterfalls turned off, they fall asleep to owls, crickets, and cicadas. In the morning, they wake up to birdsong.
Finding Xtend
Last fall, while looking for a way to protect the porch without losing the open, connected-to-the-garden feel they loved, they found Porch Windows Direct and the Xtend porch window system.
The appeal was simple: an easy, effective way to close out the weather when a storm rolls in and open the porch back up when it passes, while the screens stay in place so it still breathes on warm nights. They didn’t have to give up what made their screen porch special. They just gained more control over it.
What changed
Now that they’ve lived with the windows, three things stand out.
A dry, much cleaner porch. Rain stays out, and dust and pollen no longer blow in the way they used to. The cedar, the cushions, and the bedding stay dry and noticeably cleaner, and the porch feels ready to use rather than ready to clean.
A warmer place to sleep. With the windows in place, the porch is noticeably warmer than it is outside. This fall they’ve already had a few nights near 40 degrees, and they haven’t even turned on the electric blanket yet. When a storm or a raw, windy night comes through, they close up and stay put instead of heading indoors.
The view stays open. Even on a gray, rainy day with the windows closed, the trees and sky stay in full view. The porch still feels like part of the garden, rain or shine.
For a couple whose favorite part of the day is waking up to their garden, that matters a lot.
Could this be your porch?
Every porch has its own view. Maybe yours looks out on a backyard full of kids, a quiet patch of woods, or a garden you’ve been tending for years. Whatever it is, imagine enjoying it from a porch that stays clean and dry, welcomes you in on a stormy afternoon, and invites you out a little earlier each spring and a little later each fall. That’s what Heidi and Doug found, and their story could be yours too. Xtend porch windows come with screens included standard, and every system is assembled in Minnesota for weather everywhere.
