Page 79 - 2020 Parade Style Magazine

PARADE STYLE FEATURE
Enjoy the
Comforts
of a
By Molly Sowry, Vice President Virtuoso Builders
As COVID-19 continued to spread across the country and we had to endure shelter-in-place orders, millions of Americans experienced cab- in fever. This virus not only impacted people’s daily lives, but also our mental well being.
Part of keeping our sanity during the pan- demic was to escape to the outdoors even if outside was only as far as the backyard. With more people spending time at home and sum- mer now in full swing, we have seen an uptick in requests for outdoor cabanas.
Put plainly, a cabana is good for your mental health. Having an outdoor room is like getting to have your cake and eat it too. For some people, it’s a way to get away from home but still be at home. A cabana can be pool side or nestled in a cozy setting among the oak trees off of an existing home. Whether your idea of the perfect outdoor room includes a place to dine in with friends or family, a lounge area where you can kick back and take in the view, or a comfy spot to watch the Spurs games, a cabana is the ideal place to relax.
Our clients have used their cabanas as enter-
Photo provided by Virtuoso Builders
taining spaces, home offices, outdoor kitchens, sitting areas, and the perfect spot offering an escape and a way to cope and decompress. It’s also a great way to connect with nature while at home. More recently, we have some clients that are physicians and during the stay-at-home orders, their cabana was
the perfect getaway to connect with their patients virtually, privately, and in a relaxed atmosphere away from their main house full of distractions.
There is a lot to consider when dreaming up a new cabana. Creating a distinct space at your home away from home is an undertaking. It’s less invasive since the addition is detached from your existing house, but it is construction and it will cause a mess, albeit temporarily. It will add peace of mind, potential invest- ment value, flexibility and emotional reward, and a project that may be worth the effort for the right homeowner.
Sheltering-in-place may have you looking at your home with fresh eyes and seeing how you want to improve your day to day living. Being confined to our homes, we have become much more aware of the space we share and the limitations of our homes. Perhaps, working virtually from your kitchen is too distracting and you need a separate work space? Possibly, you would like to exercise somewhere else where you can focus better besides the small area in your bedroom? A good takeaway from this experience could be adding an outdoor space that is multifunctional to solve these problems.
As people, we value the connection between the indoors and out. COVID-19 changed our lives and habits, but there is a silver lining. This crisis brought out many good things such as the value of a being comfortable at home, of relax- ation, a good workspace, and the importance of the spaces that surround us.
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