Benched

Maryn

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One Midwestern behavior I'm still adapting to is people removing their shoes before they come into your house, even on days that are dry. After someone nearly toppled, we decided to provide a bench right by the front door. (It's also handy for leaving a snack basket when I'm expecting a package--instead of leaving it by the garage, drivers who know the house bring it to the door.)

Mr. Maryn was able to build the bench modifying plans he already had. Paint was my job. I was pleased with the match to the house's siding--real close but not perfect--and unhappy with the stencil, which I did over and over until I came to accept that it was never going to have sharp lines like I imagined.

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Maryn, who really likes the bench
 

Catriona Grace

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Pretty! Useful! Clever! Triple threat you got there.

I wish people would take their shoes off at my house (we live on a dirt road). My husband is the world's worst transgressor along with the three dogs, so I gave up on maintaining clean floors long ago. (Looks around at accumlation of dust and dog hair currently present and decides to make a stab at cleaning before some errant seed takes roots under a chair somewhere.)
 

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That is really lovely. And the colour is a great match!

Wish I had the space for something like that. Front porches: not really a thing over here! We tend to do shoe removal in pokey, cramped little indoor porches instead. And I'm not even sure how widespread shoe removal is here, honestly, though everybody I know has always done it. Our weather certainly encourages it!
 
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mrsmig

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That is a lovely bench. And stencil.
 
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frimble3

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One Midwestern behavior I'm still adapting to is people removing their shoes before they come into your house, even on days that are dry. After someone nearly toppled, we decided to provide a bench right by the front door. (It's also handy for leaving a snack basket when I'm expecting a package--instead of leaving it by the garage, drivers who know the house bring it to the door.)

Mr. Maryn was able to build the bench modifying plans he already had. Paint was my job. I was pleased with the match to the house's siding--real close but not perfect--and unhappy with the stencil, which I did over and over until I came to accept that it was never going to have sharp lines like I imagined.

viqELng.jpg


Maryn, who really likes the bench
That bench looks good! Excellent match on the colour, and, as for the stencil, it looks good from here, and I imagine few people will be viewing it as critically as you are, regarding 'sharp lines'. Mainly, they will be sitting on it.
 
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Friendly Frog

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That's one nicelooking bench! Sturdy-looking too!(y)

We're supposed to have a bench inside the backdoor porch for shoe removal too. But it keeps on getting buried under empty shooping bags and the cat's pillow. Also the underside of the bench is either covered in spider webs or cat hair, as the cat flap is right beneath. I can't imagine why we're not using it for its intended goal, she said sarcastically.
 
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Introversion

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One Midwestern behavior I'm still adapting to is people removing their shoes before they come into your house, even on days that are dry.
Nice bench! What part of the Midwest? I’m more familiar with Midwesterners taking off their shoes after they enter a house, not before. The latter seems a bit odd to me — like, if you don’t have a porch, do they abandon their poor shoes to the weather?
 

Maryn

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My part of the Midwest is now Wisconsin. Everybody takes their shoes off inside if not outside. If they take them off outside, they carry the shoes inside, where we have a waterproof tray.

The porch is protected from snow, pretty much, and it's one step from bench to dry doormat, so people can come in with dry feet.

Maryn, who thinks more about her socks than she used to
 

Introversion

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My part of the Midwest is now Wisconsin. Everybody takes their shoes off inside if not outside.
Huh. My relatives in Wisconsin must’ve all been uncouth monsters. 😛

My family on the farm did regularly take off our shoes before entering the house, but 1) we had a fully enclosed porch and 2) that was so as not track manure into the house.
 
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Gramps

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Huh. My relatives in Wisconsin must’ve all been uncouth monsters. 😛

My family on the farm did regularly take off our shoes before entering the house, but 1) we had a fully enclosed porch and 2) that was so as not track manure into the house.
If they take off their shoes, they are polite. If they start removing other garments it just gets weird!
 

Fi Webster

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....and unhappy with the stencil, which I did over and over until I came to accept that it was never going to have sharp lines like I imagined.

You're a real artist, Maryn. Because only real artists complain that the end result of their work is lacking, when everyone who sees it thinks it's fab. That stencil is fab!

Happy Hallowe'en! 🎃🎃🎃 'Hope you get some fun trick-r-treaters tonight.
 

Gramps

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One Midwestern behavior I'm still adapting to is people removing their shoes before they come into your house, even on days that are dry. After someone nearly toppled, we decided to provide a bench right by the front door. (It's also handy for leaving a snack basket when I'm expecting a package--instead of leaving it by the garage, drivers who know the house bring it to the door.)

Mr. Maryn was able to build the bench modifying plans he already had. Paint was my job. I was pleased with the match to the house's siding--real close but not perfect--and unhappy with the stencil, which I did over and over until I came to accept that it was never going to have sharp lines like I imagined.

viqELng.jpg


Maryn, who really likes the bench
You,ve made the bench like a snowflake, one of a kind. Appreciate it for it's uniqueness and beauty. At the very least, it's a spot to plant your butt while removing your shoes, but I would honestly pitch the snowflake angle first!
 
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Chris P

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You,ve made the bench like a snowflake, one of a kind. Appreciate it for it's uniqueness and beauty. At the very least, it's a spot to plant your butt while removing your shoes, but I would honestly pitch the snowflake angle first!
What's awesome is you can use different colors of paints and stencil the same shape into a flower when spring and summer come.

Not that you need more projects to do, of course . . .
 

frimble3

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What's awesome is you can use different colors of paints and stencil the same shape into a flower when spring and summer come.

Not that you need more projects to do, of course . . .
I was thinking that the snowflake, stenciled onto sturdy fabric, would make nice matching (or contrasting) pillows, for summer-sitting-outside purposes.
 

Maryn

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It was one of a pack of nine stencil patterns. What I proposed got shot down: buying glow in the dark paint and stenciling the front walkway. If it worked, it would be pretty cool.
 
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Catriona Grace

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Painted porches are a thing in certain parts of the southwest. A friend in Albuquerque painted her concrete slab front porch sky blue and added stenciled morning glories and leaves. It was perfect with her small, tan stucco flat-roofed house- lifted it to a whole new level of happiness.
 
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Jazz Club

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That is really lovely. And the colour is a great match!

Wish I had the space for something like that. Front porches: not really a thing over here! We tend to do shoe removal in pokey, cramped little indoor porches instead. And I'm not even sure how widespread shoe removal is here, honestly, though everybody I know has always done it. Our weather certainly encourages it!
Hardly anyone I know does it. We may be uncouth people, though. I'd never heard of it much until I did a student exchange with a German family and they bought a pair of Hausschuhe just for me. What do you wear instead? Do you bring slippers with you or does the host provide them, or what? Or just walk around in socks?
 

NickyRainbow

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Hardly anyone I know does it. We may be uncouth people, though. I'd never heard of it much until I did a student exchange with a German family and they bought a pair of Hausschuhe just for me. What do you wear instead? Do you bring slippers with you or does the host provide them, or what? Or just walk around in socks?

Honestly yeah, everyone I know just wears socks when visiting other people's homes, and slippers around their own homes! I would never personally go as far as to ask someone to take their shoes off, but visitors always seem to do it anyway. Suits me, because I'm a clean freak and it rains constantly here up north! That's probably the main reason it's so common around here, rather than anything to do with the couth and the uncouth :LOL:

It was one of a pack of nine stencil patterns. What I proposed got shot down: buying glow in the dark paint and stenciling the front walkway. If it worked, it would be pretty cool.

I bet that would be cool, not to mention practical!
 
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