Patio

The first cookout of the season is behind us, but perhaps while entertaining Memorial Day you realized just how tacky your outdoor furniture really looks. Especially if you left it out all winter. Maybe it's time to replace it. Here are some questions you should ask yourself to assure that the outdoor furnishings you select will meet your needs. They're from Casual Decor magazine. How many people do you need to accommodate? Will the top priority be family activities - dinners for four, lounging with a book, playing with the kids?

Longing to have a little patch of paradise all your own? With some careful planning and a bit of imagination, even those with small apartment or condo patios can have lush little havens in which to enjoy nature's bounty. The first step in creating a small-space garden is to outline the hardscape, which generally includes the patio surface area, according to Willy Bear, of Sperling Nursery in Calabasas, Calif. Hardscape can constitute cobblestone, cement, bricks, wood decking, stepping stones or any other material used on patios, she said, adding that the perimeter of a hardscape area is usually lined with some type of border, such as a raised planter bed. "The guidelines are dictated by the size and shape of the area," said Bear, who received certification from the Ecole de Jardin in France and who traveled in England studying gardens.

The North Wales zoning board has given a local man permission to build a patio on a concrete lot at 335-337 Elm St., even though it would violate a seven-foot sideyard ordinance. At a meeting on Thursday, the board said it would allow Jeffery Clemens to construct the patio because the lot - which is covered with concrete rather than grass - is already in violation of the zoning ordinance. The ordinance requires a grass buffer between lots. Daniel H. O'Connell, board chairman, said he believed the violation was not that serious and that it would not be worth the $16,000 Clemens would have to spend to remove the concrete from the lot, where there also is a twin house.

Portraying himself as "an average businessman" who made mistakes, City Councilman James J. Tayoun yesterday asked a city licensing board to approve the brown and white tile patio he built without permits for the Middle East restaurant in Old City. But an attorney for the city asked the Board of License and Inspection Review to uphold an earlier decision of the city Art Commission, which rejected Tayoun's application for a patio permit. "May people in the city of Philadelphia ignore code requirements . . . and build anything they like?"

The Radnor Township Zoning Hearing Board has come down on the side of a contractor in a contentious case over building a concrete patio in an exclusive housing development despite objections by the homeowners' association. The point of argument is a front yard walkway that a builder extended into a concrete patio at a house under construction in the Inveraray development, off Darby Paoli Road. E.J. Callaghan & Co. Inc., represented by attorney Edward N. Flail Jr., sought the variance for the patio after a construction problem at the sloping property of 401 Inveraray Rd. The entrance had to be altered, Flail said, and the retaining walls were shifted because during construction of the hillside house, the contractor discovered buried tree stumps, lumber and other debris that prevented pouring a safe foundation.

With stipulations and words of caution, the Falls Township Zoning Board unanimously granted a resident a variance to enclose his patio on Tuesday night. Christopher Vitello of 526 Stevens Rd. in Morrisville, whose home is located between Route 1 and Big Oak Road, amended his variance to construct a 12-foot-10-inch-by-17-foot enclosure after the board expressed concern about a 2-foot-2-inch walkway the plan would have created between his pool and the addition. "As unhappy as we make the applicant, we must consider the health hazards of people accidentally falling into the shallow end of the pool," said board member William Sheffer.

The Plymouth Township Zoning Hearing Board has granted a variance to James G. Murray, allowing him to add an enclosed patio in his back yard. The vote Monday night was 5-0. Murray wants to construct a 12-by-15-foot concrete pad and a 12-by-15-foot glass and screen enclosure at the rear of his house. But the addition would encroach 12 feet into the 30-foot, rear-yard setback required by township zoning ordinances. Murray testified that he wanted to build the addition because the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which runs directly behind his house, is very noisy.

After nine years, George Leidig is no closer to finishing his patio than the day he stopped construction in 1979. Bricks and lumber for the project rest below the wooden, tar-papered roof from the time the township denied permission for him to complete the structure. During a meeting Wednesday night, the Whitpain Township Zoning Hearing Board voted, 3-0, to deny Leidig's second request to finish the 240-square- foot enclosed patio in the 1700 block of Pemberton Road. The decision upholds the same board's decision of nine years ago, when the township stopped Leidig from completing the patio, which he had started without obtaining a building permit.

A proposal by the owners of Chicago's bar to build an outdoor patio brought a storm of protest last night from dozens of residents who complained that the facility has been a problem. Although the bar's attorney, Jim Waller, said the establishment has received but two police calls and no citations in the four years since it opened under its current ownership, several residents painted a very different picture. One man said he has called police half a dozen times in recent months.

Question: We bought patio chairs several years ago. We leave them out of doors year-round, and the material has become discolored. Is there a way to clean them? No holes or any other problems. Answer: Let's talk about cleaning more than just your chairs, if we may, since summer starts this weekend, and it's time to play outdoors. To clean woven furniture, you'll need to get into and around those intricate weaves. And that requires a variety of brushes - a new, rather than used, toothbrush (stiffer bristles)

I N THE SPRING and summer, Marie Zienkewicz, 89, could often be seen on the patio of her apartment in a sprawling, lush Bucks County complex watering her prim flower garden. But Tuesday night, authorities say, the senior citizen's peaceful existence came to a violent end. A bullet from a gunbattle between police and an apparently unhinged resident there found its way into the woman's apartment and killed her. "He didn't solve anything. His life's over," resident Barbara Sussman, 65, said of Andrew G. Cairns, 49, the man accused of barricading himself in the apartment above Zienkewicz's at Jefferson on the Creek apartments, on Street Road near Davisville in Warminster.

Brenda Sullivan cautions up front: "You can really get carried away by this. " She's talking about miniature gardens, which can include pint-size fairy gardens - hugely popular, snobsters - and rock and trough gardens, railway gardens and even some Zen gardens. "They're so adorable!" says Sullivan, obviously carried away. They're also way easier than traditional gardens for anyone challenged by age, health, or physical limitation. You don't even have to be mobile to be part of the trend, which parallels others, namely: Container, trough, terrarium, and patio gardening, which are all part of a growing interest in landscapes for small spaces; green roofs and walls, which use some of the same plants; and floral designs made of natural and recycled materials.

A reader said there was a 20-foot crack running across her 15-year-old concrete patio that had been repaired with caulking. She asked if she should have the patio repoured. Another reader, who has been in residential construction and building supplies for 45 years, wrote that any 200-square-foot patio that has lasted 15 years with only one crack means the patio was built right in the first place, but with one exception. "The crack tells me the original builder did not put in the correct expansion joints.

Question: We have had natural hardwood floors for five years. During that time we had a rug under a coffee table. This week we removed the rug and the wood floor was a much lighter color. What can we do to have the floor return to its original matching finish? Answer: It probably would involve less work if you just let the area darken to match the floor that was exposed to the sun's UV rays. I've seen homeowners use bleach to lighten wood floors with some success but I wouldn't do it myself.

Seven years ago, Len and Mary DeMenczuk decided they were getting too old to run Bristol Borough's landmark King George II Inn, so they sold it and retired to Florida. But the economy conspired against the new owners, so the DeMenczuks are back. Now in their mid-60s, they are working as hard as ever to reopen one of the country's oldest inns, dating to 1681. Yes, George Washington slept there, long before he became president. "We've been working 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week for six weeks," Mary DeMenczuk says during a break on the brick patio overlooking the Delaware River.

Dear Martha: How should I prepare my patio furniture for winter storage? A: Although most outdoor furniture is built to withstand the elements, proper maintenance and storage in the offseason helps it last much longer. First, remove the cushions and umbrella, and clean them according to the directions on the label. If there are no instructions, wash them using a sponge and 1/4 cup mild dishwashing liquid, such as Ivory, mixed into 1 gallon of warm water. Rinse the fabric, and then stand the cushions on their sides.

On a warm spring night, Sara and Harry Robbins and their friends from the 80 Percent Old Time Spring Band sit on their gracious porch and play Appalachian mountain music. A melody fills the air, and neighbors, accustomed to these impromptu concerts, wander over to listen. Some bring harmonicas, guitars, fiddles, or mandolins and join in. Some just bring their children. It's a scene repeated on many a pleasant evening on this quiet street in West Mount Airy. "I've lived a lot of places," said Harry Robbins, "but this is the best neighborhood I have ever lived in. " For Harry and Sara Robbins, music and the outdoors have as much to do with their home life as the antiques that fill their rooms.

Anthony E. DeSantis, 79, of Runnemede, former co-owner of a ceramic tile company who was marshal of the Runnemede Fourth of July parade for 15 years, died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on Monday, May 17, at home. After serving in the Air Force during the Korean War, Mr. DeSantis went to work for his father and uncle's company in Camden, DeSantis Ceramic Tile Co. Mr. DeSantis helped the company expand until it had 13 employees, his wife, Florence, said.

On Osage Avenue, trees stretch into a green archway. Flowers and bushes decorate front patios, and neighbors look out for one another. Earnestine Rice keeps the place neat by sweeping her sidewalk. The chore is a small effort at normalcy, but the horror that happened here 25 years ago remains palpable. Then, a fiery confrontation between MOVE and Philadelphia police left 11 people dead, and Rice's 6200 block of Osage and neighboring Pine Street in ruins. Thirty-seven of the 61 homes here, including those on either side of her redbrick rowhouse, sit dark, bought up by the city and left abandoned.

It sounds a bit like a pet rock for gardeners, but consumers seem to love the upside-down Topsy Turvy tomato planter, which has been sprouting all over the marketplace. Bill Felknor, a folksy inventor from Knoxville, Tenn., has sold millions of his curious creations since they first appeared on QVC in 2003 - more than seven million last year alone, making it one of the most popular gardening products ever introduced. "I give the good Lord 100 percent of the credit," Felknor said of his "hanging gardens," which grow tomatoes out the bottom of a soil-filled bag and are watered from the top. Skeptics (there are many)