The Importance of Decks

When you’re imagining your future dream house, what’s the one thing it must have?  Open fireplaces in every room?  A modern kitchen?  A big, open-plan living area?

For me, it’s none of those things, although all three suggestions sound pretty nice and would certainly be appreciated.  But really, I could live without the fireplaces or the fancy kitchen (the Chef would disagree strongly here) and the open-plan living area, because all I really want is a deck.

My deck doesn’t even need to have a view, really.  It would be nice if it did, of course, but I can’t be too picky.  Preferably, it should lead out from a communal area, rather than a bedroom, because I’d rather have people joining me on my deck from the lounge or the kitchen instead of traipsing through my bedroom.

Once they’re on my deck, my guests should be able to relax at a table and chairs, so I’ll need enough space for that.  If at all possible, some of that space should be under cover, but I’ll cope if it’s not.

There was a lovely deck attached to the house we stayed in over the new year in Dromana, but this is about the only photo I took of it:

So we can see that it was more than capable of supporting multiple glasses of champagne, which is always a plus.  And look at that view!  If you really put your mind to it, you could spend hours just sitting there and gazing at that peaceful, rural landscape.  And on this particular deck, you could even do that from an outdoor bath, which was just up from the barbeque.

We had dinner on the deck; I read on the deck; Aimee, Bec and Emily plotted their Korea trip on the deck; we celebrated the new year on the deck, with bonus sparklers…  There’s a theme here, isn’t there?  On the deck.  Everything is awesome there.

So awesome, in fact, that now I’ve decided my future house must have one.  I have spent many an hour on realestate.com, making productive use of the last few days of my holidays, searching for houses I might like to buy if I had a spare couple of hundred thousand.  Some of them are absolutely stunning but once it becomes clear that there’s no deck or verandah (which I will accept as a deck substitute), I dismiss that half-million dollar Federation home with priceless river views.  No deck?  No good.

My current house falls into that latter category, alas.  The only thing that comes close to a deck is a paved area that is riddled with ants.  And when it comes to trying to exert dominance over outside areas, the ants generally win.  They can bite harder.  So whenever we have the “would you buy this house?” conversation about our current residence, I’ve always said, “Yes, but we’d have to build a deck out the back,” because it would be perfect.  We’d have a gorgeous view over the treetops and a lovely outside area where we could lord it over the ants far below.  Of course, fixing the ageing roof might be an idea, too, but I have to stick with my priorities.

Is anyone else with me on the deck thing?  If not, what’s the one thing your future dream house must have?

Tagged as: A Roof Over One's Head, Musing