How A Screened Porch Works

A screened porch is a great addition to your outside space because it’s such a simple structure to add. It’s typically built on top of an existing deck (or patio, at a push), and connects to the external walls of your home through screws and ties. The money saving part comes from its construction, which is basically a post and beam format with a solid roof and screen walls. The screens, made from insect proof mesh, is what makes it magical during a Calgary summer. You’ll get all the sunshine, cooling breezes and views out over your garden without having to worry about the strong overhead sun or the biting insects that can spoil any outside time in the city. 

Bring The Outdoors Inside

Your new screened porch instantly blends the boundaries between inside and outside given the lack of solid walls combined with a solid roof over your head. You can continue to bring the outdoors inside with some of these ideas:

• Choose outdoor textures – the overall vibe of a room is always about how you decorate the space, and this often comes down to which textures and materials you choose. Picking slightly rougher textures, such as a burlap rug, wicker chairs or driftwood picture frames, will conjure up the feeling of being outside from the comfort of your indoor space. You can complement these touches with some soft furnishings like a soft throw blanket to snuggle under or a large beanbag chair for younger family members to relax in during the summer evenings. 
• Find outdoor furniture – another approach to blend the boundaries between indoors and outdoors is to use furniture that you would typically use on your deck or patio. While this could include a set of comfy folding lounge chairs, it can also be an outdoor set of wicker arm chairs and a long sofa. For some extra warmth in the spring and fall evenings, consider a small electric fire pit to use as a central focus point for your screened porch.
• Bring the plants inside – finally, you can make you and your family feel like they’re stepping directly into the garden by bringing some of your potted plants from the garden to the screened porch, and put them next to some of your indoor houseplants that would thrive in additional heat and humidity. Consider having some hanging from the rafter and aim for a mixture of colours and sizes to create a unique visual effect. Finish the outdoor feel to your indoor space by picking out interesting plant pot designs; this can act as your artistic finishing touches while also looking after your plant babies all summer long.

What is a Park Model Sunroom?

The moment you step inside a park model sunroom, you’ll immediately see how it got its name. The main feature of any sunroom is the big windows on three sides of the room, giving you the best view out of your campground at any time of day. Depending on your budget and personal preferences, you may opt for full floor to ceiling windows, a half window design for more privacy, or a traditional wall and window structure on two sides with a mesh screen leading to the outside. No matter which design you choose, you can add to the sunlight with skylights and glass-panelled doors.

Design Factors For Your Park Model Sunroom

When you work with Desert Sun Patios to construct your park model sunroom, you’ll be amazed at how much of the work is customizable to your campground property. Here are some of the factors you’ll need to consider when you’re working with us to design your dream trailer sunroom:

• The foundations – the biggest factor that will dictate the overall size and shape of your trailer sunroom is what you’re going to use for the foundations. If you have an existing deck or solid patio outside your park model, you’ll be able to use that as the base for your sunroom, but you’ll be limited by the size of your deck or patio. However, if you only have grass or dirt outside, you can dig the foundations wherever you like, but you’ll find that this option increases the overall cost of the project due to the cost of excavating the dirt. 
• Position of external exits – most people will place the external door of their trailer sunroom at one end or the other to give them the maximum amount of usable space. However, you can add multiple exits to make the best use of your outside space and to reduce foot traffic in your sunroom, or place one directly opposite the external door of your park model to allow for direct access to your home while leaving the sunroom free for use throughout the day.
• Proposed purpose – finally, decisions about the number and the size of windows as well as any potential skylights will be dictated by how you intend to use your trailer sunroom. For example, if you want it as an observation station, you’ll want the biggest windows that your structure will support. On the other hand, if you want it as a guest bedroom, you’ll want some walls to offer some privacy to the many guests who will come visit your new trailer sunroom.

What is a Trailer Sunroom?

You may have come across sunrooms as a residential upgrade around Calgary. They’re big windowed rooms that typically sit on a deck or patio to the rear of a house and provide the perfect space to enjoy the best of the summer months without worrying about bugs, heat or humidity. A sunroom for your trailer is exactly the same, just on a slightly smaller scale. It does require a hard surface, so if you’ve already got an existing deck outside your trailer, it can be quick and easy to build. A sunroom is characterized by large windows, sometimes going from floor to ceiling, and they fit the profile of your trailer so you can make them as long or as short as possible.

Using Your Trailer Sunroom

Once you’ve made the decision to extend your camping footprint with a sunroom for your trailer, you’ll quickly brainstorm a lot of different ways that you could use your new space. Here’s a few easy ones to get your camping season off to a great start.

Morning Zen

Evenings at the campground are for fires and socializing. Mornings are for coffee and quiet contemplation. You can set your new trailer sunroom up to make the most of the peaceful start to the day with a couple of comfy armchairs and somewhere to put your coffee. Make sure to add some soft blankets to keep you warm during the shoulder seasons and suddenly you’ll find yourself looking forward to mornings.

Storage Central

Camping comes with a whole bunch of gear that you want to have ready access to during the day, but that you don’t necessarily want to put outside your trailer in case of wind or rain damage. A sunroom becomes the ultimate indoor/outdoor storage base where everything you need for a day’s fun at the campground is easily accessible while keeping your main living space clear of camping detritus.

Room For a Friend

A more unusual way to use your sunroom for your trailer is to make it into a guest bedroom (or maybe just a place for you to sleep feeling like you’re truly outdoors!). Camping is always more fun with friends, and being able to offer them somewhere comfortable to sleep over that isn’t a cot on your trailer living room floor will make you very popular during the season. You can get creative with a simple futon or a pull out sofa bed so the space can double up as an extra living room during the day. 

A Carport To Save You Time

Carports can come in a variety of different shapes and sizes and can be made from a variety of different materials to fit your driveway and your budget. However, the key component of any carport is the protection that they provide year round to save you time. They really come into their own during the winter months, sheltering your car from the seemingly endless snow and ice storms. You can add an extra layer of protection with vinyl or plastic sidings to avoid ice buildups around the base of your car. Starting the day with a clear car saves you time and helps you get on the road quicker, giving you a few more warm minutes in your home. During the warmer months, a carport can save you time by giving you a place to store your outdoor gardening equipment. Having your hoses, rakes and spades hanging in one place will make your carport a convenient home base for your yard work, as well as giving you a shaded spot to take a break during the hotter Calgary days.

A Carport To Add Value

Just like any outdoor home improvement project, installing a carport doesn’t automatically mean that your home is worth more. It doesn’t add to the square footage of your home, and doesn’t give potential buyers a new room or better features. However, what it does do is increase the curb appeal of your home; that first impression that people see when they’re looking at photos of your home or driving past to check out the neighbourhood. What they’ll see is a convenient place for their car next to their home as well as an opportunity for outdoor storage. This will make them be willing to pay more as it will look like a luxurious upgrade. 

Additional Features For Convenience and Return On Investment

You can take a couple of easy steps to upgrade your carport to make it more convenient for you and to boost the value it adds to your home. Simply adding electrical outlets will make a massive difference as you can charge everything from your outdoor tools to your electric vehicle, all with a solid roof over your head. Add in some built storage so it has a hybrid garage feel to it, and you could be looking at a 5% increase in the sale price of your home. 

Why Choose Cost Effective DIY Carport Plans

A carport can seem like a significant upgrade to your property given its size and presence next to your house. However, with DIY carport plans, you can get the year round convenience of a carport without breaking your budget. It’s worth looking at a variety of different carport designs so that you can make sure that you’ll be building a carport to fit your needs and your budget. Here’s some of the ways that using DIY carport plans can save you money in the long run with your carport project:

• Adapt to your property – the first and most obvious way to save money with DIY carport plans is that you can take them and adapt them to the shape of your home and driveway. While the plans will map out the dimensions of their suggested carport, you can easily make some edits and changes if you need it to be slightly longer for a bigger car, or somewhat narrower to fit in the gap between your house and the lawn. This can save you money as you’ll only pay for what you need. 
• Customized materials – there are plenty of different options when you’re choosing the materials for your new carport, and choosing DIY carport plans means that you can change or mix and match the materials to meet your budget and aesthetics. For example, if you’re looking for a cheaper option, you can make the whole thing from aluminium and vinyl which will give a more lightweight carport. For something more durable and rugged, you could use treated lumber to make it feel like a pergola on your driveway. 

Hands on labour – probably your biggest savings when it comes to choosing to use DIY carport plans is that you’re not paying for anyone else’s labour. Of course, when you work with a carport contractor, you’re paying for their expertise and to save yourself the time and effort of not building it yourself. However, if you’ve got the right set of tools, plenty of time and a willingness to follow clear instructions, then getting a set of DIY carport plans allows you to build your dream structure without breaking the bank.

How Patio Covers Work

Just like it sounds, a patio cover is a structure that provides a level of shade and protection over your outdoor area. Unlike a patio umbrella, they are permanent structures and tend to extend over your entire patio without the need for putting them up or down, or having to rotate them through the day to keep the shade over you and your family. Patio covers come in two main varieties. Firstly, you get the solid covers, where you use vinyl or aluminum sheets to create a full block. These give you great shade all day long but can restrict the air movement even on the windy Calgary days. On the other hand, you can get patio covers that are latticed which creates more of a dappled shade effect, but allow the spring breezes to keep you cool as the temperatures start to rise.

A Third Way – The Benefits of Going Hybrid

Choosing between a solid patio cover and a latticed patio cover can be tricky because oftentimes you’ll want elements of both. Fortunately, when you work with Desert Sun Patios team of expert patio cover creators, we can talk with you about your individual project and create a custom hybrid model that gives you the best of both worlds. 

The most popular hybrid patio cover option is to have elements of both solid and lattice cover in your patio cover. For example, you might choose to have a majority solid cover with a latticed centre, under which you would put a firepit or chimney so the lattice works as a natural chimney. You could also have a solid cover right next to your house to cover your seating area, and slowly change to lattice as you approach the area where your patio meets your garden for a pleasant visual aesthetic.

Choosing a hybrid patio cover means that you have the ultimate flexibility about how to use your outdoor space as the weather warms up. You can ditch the patio umbrella and upgrade to a hybrid patio cover in a short period of time, and our team of patio cover experts will help you create your personalized design to meet whatever your budget.

What is a Hybrid Patio Cover?

A usual patio cover comes in two main formats. The most common type of patio cover is a solid roof design. This typically attaches to your home and stretches out across your patio giving you full shade as the spring days get longer and warmer. The roof can be made of a variety of materials from vinyl to cloth to suit your aesthetic and your budget. The other type of patio cover is a lattice design. Think of a pergola effect here. The goal of a lattice design patio cover is to allow light and air to circulate under your patio cover. A hybrid patio cover provides you with a mixture of both full cover and lattice design so you can get the best of both worlds.

Innovative Hybrid Designs

There are a wide variety of ways that you can combine solid and lattice patio cover designs to get the most out of your patio this spring. Here are some creative options to get you started:

• Pergola canopy combo – a wooden pergola is an iconic patio cover and works well with any type of siding or house design. It has a naturally latticed roof, so you can turn it into a hybrid patio cover with fabric canopy strips fastened between each beam. Make these fabric canopy panels retractable on a string so that you can control the amount of sunlight that comes onto your patio. 
• Solid panels with skylight strips – for a more permanent hybrid concept, work with your patio cover contractor to create a design that incorporates solid panels with latticed sections of skylights. You can put the lattice next to the house and put your grill underneath it to act as a natural chimney, or put the lattice at the edge of the patio to provide a visual transition out to the garden. 
• Translucent panels with side drapes – finally, you can choose translucent panels (etched glass or acrylic work well here) that will soften the spring Calgary sunlight. Add some fabric drapes or bamboo shades down the sides of your patio cover to create a sense of privacy and shelter as well as more control over the amount of shade you get on the patio. This gives you the flexibility to deal with the vagaries of Calgary’s spring time weather and gets you ready for a summer on your patio. 

What is an All Season Sunroom?

An all season (or four season) sunroom is a home addition that usually sits directly on top of your patio or deck just outside the back of your home. It’s a full room add-on with big glass windows to bring the outdoors up close, and the all season part comes from connecting the room to your existing heating and cooling systems so you can be in your sunroom even in the coldest winter months. While it gives you a whole extra room to your home, it’s a cheap alternative to a full extension as you don’t need to dig foundations and the walls are hollow to allow for insulation.

A Cosy Winter Sunroom

The most easy and obvious way to use your newly acquired space during the Calgary winter is to make it into a cosy living room. All you need is a sofa and a couple of comfy armchairs with enough blankets and cushions to snuggle under as the snow falls outside. You can add to the cosy vibes with a thick pile rug or carpet, as well as installing heavy drapes to keep the warmth in once the sun has set.

Alternative Winter Sunroom Uses

If you’re all set with your current winter living room set up, or you just want to explore some other options for how to use your new space, here’s some other ways to use a sunroom during winter in Calgary:

• Dining room – the winter months hold a wide variety of holiday celebrations, so it can make sense to turn your sunroom into a formal dining area where you can host your friends and family in comfort and style.
• Guest bedroom – continuing with the theme of being the host with the most, you can turn your sunroom into a relaxing guest bedroom. Whether you go all out with a full bed and wardrobe set up, or just pick a fold out bed that doubles as your main sofa so you can get the best of both worlds. 
• Home gym – finally, it can be hard to find the motivation to get out and exercise during the cold weather. Your new sunroom can be easily turned into a home gym with a treadmill (or walking pad), a weight bench and some weights. It can also be a home yoga studio with room for you and a friend to stretch while looking at the winter wonderland outside. Whatever you choose to use, a sunroom makes the winter months fly by.

Using Your Sunroom Year Round

When you work with experienced sunroom builders, you should be able to make it so that your sunroom can be used year round. You need to be talking about either a four season sunroom or an all season sunroom, depending on who you contract with, but in either case, you’re looking for a full room that will connect to your home’s existing heating and cooling system. A year round sunroom can sit directly on top of your existing deck or patio, meaning that you can build it quickly and enjoy your new space in every season.

Spring In Your Sunroom

Spring is a beautiful season in Calgary, in part because it means that winter is finally done, and in part because the change from snowscape to green and growth in your yard can be joyful. Your sunroom is the perfect place to sit with a hot cup of tea or coffee in the mornings, enjoying the quiet before your family gets up.

Summer In Your Sunroom

Make no doubt about it, your sunroom comes into its own when summer rolls around. You get all the best parts of summer in Calgary: the endless days of sunshine, the long days and the glorious warmth, without any of the bugs and wind that can make it hard to stay outside during the summer months. Many Calgary sunroom owners put up a dining table in their new space so you can enjoy the feeling of a picnic lunch or dinner without getting eaten or blown away.

Fall In Your Sunroom

As the days get cooler and shorter, your sunroom still remains the place to be. You’ll find yourself ending the day in front of the big glass windows, watching the sun set over your garden and relaxing after a good day out preparing your yard for winter. To get the best out of fall, you want to invest in some cosy blankets and consider turning the furniture to face the window so you get an up close vision of the changing leaves.

Winter In Your Sunroom

The first time that you sit in your sunroom in the middle of a big Calgary snowstorm, you’ll wonder why you hated winter all these years. There’s something awe inspiring about watching the snow tumble and fall all around you while you remain warm and cosy. Your sunroom quickly becomes an inner sanctuary during the long months of winter hibernation, and whether you set it up as a family room or a quiet “no kids” space, your winter sunroom gives everyone the breathing room they need to get back round to spring.

What Is A Carport?

You’ll probably have seen a carport as you’ve driven around Calgary even if you didn’t know that’s what it was called. A carport is a simple post and beam structure that sits over the top of your vehicle/s. It always has a solid roof, and typically is open on the sides which keeps the weight down, and means that you can install the whole thing directly on top of your driveway in next to no time. You can choose from a free standing carport which can sit anywhere on your property to give full winter coverage to your vehicles, or a carport which attaches to your home so that you are also covered as you leave the house to get to your car.

How A Carport Helps With Winter Prep

The most obvious way that a carport helps with your winter preparation is that it shields your car from the worst of the winter storms. If you chose a freestanding carport, the solid roof will create a barrier so the snow and ice slides off around your car, saving you time and energy of scraping ice and shovelling around your tires. If you chose an attached carport, you’ll find that the shape of the carport and the proximity to your home helps keep your vehicle a little warmer making it easier to start up on those frigid mornings. You can add to the effectiveness of your carport with simple plastic sheeting hung between the posts which will provide further protection from the wind and allow you to use the carport for storage. 

More Than Just Protection

Even if a carport just kept the snow and ice off your vehicle, it would be a sound investment for your property. However, a carport offers more than just protection for your car. The solid roof provides a measure of coverage for the surrounding driveway, meaning that there’s considerably less real estate to shovel or snow blow. You’ll also find that your carport becomes a useful place to store your outdoor snow clearing equipment, meaning that your shovel and ice breaker are always at hand, as well as providing quick access to a snow blower. With all these benefits, it’s time to invest in your winter prep with a carport so that you can enjoy the best that a Calgary winter has to offer.