How to Enjoy Your Summer Vacation At Home

School is out, temperatures are heating up, and new sizzles and smells from freshly grilled foods are beginning to permeate the air. Summer is here, and you and your whole family are wondering how to enjoy your summer vacation at home to create lasting memories.

Control the Temperature

No matter what activities you decide to embark on while figuring out how to enjoy your summer vacation at home, the most important thing you can do is control the temperature. Heat and humidity levels vary throughout the country. Periodically, unprecedented heatwaves hit and can stall fun activities in their tracks. You must plan your activities around temperature-controlled spaces.

The easiest way to do this is to have your air conditioning checked out or add an air conditioning system of some kind to your home. You’ll want to work with an electrical contractor to ensure you have the right type and size for your home to ensure you’re not putting any extra dangerous power draw on your home’s electrical system. Consulting with an electrical contractor is especially important for older homes whose electrical systems may not yet meet today’s electrical safety requirements.

If you don’t have air conditioning and can’t add a new HVAC system, then make sure you’re planning activities during the coolest parts of the day. Keep the sunlight out of your windows, open your windows at night, and utilize any cross-breeze features your home may have. Purchase and use multiple fans throughout the day. Keep one area of your home designed so that people may sit or lounge in wet clothing.

Add a Gazebo to Your Property

Adding a gazebo to your property can make your outdoor activities more enjoyable. It can also be an excellent place for everyone to gather at night for socialization. Depending on the gazebo design, someone can decorate it for different activities, like weddings, date nights, or themed parties. Be sure to work with an appropriate contractor and obtain the proper permits before beginning the project. In some areas of the country, a building inspector is allowed to heavily fine building structures erected without permission or even order them removed.

Make Your Home Feel Like a Resort

You may not be going to a resort this year, but you can make your home feel like one when figuring out how to enjoy your summer vacation at home. What you add to your home, the modifications you make, and how you choose to separate the resort-like feel from the rest of the house will depend on what type of resort you want to experience.

Here are some ideas.

• If you live on spacious land and have horses, you might want to spend your time with the horses exploring trails you’ve not tried before or consider spending one or more nights sleeping in the barn with a bedroll.
• If you’re more inclined to some creature comforts, keep freshly sliced cucumbers in the fridge for your eyes, purchase high-thread-count sheets and pillowcases for your bed and pillows. Consider purchasing a new bedspread set that resembles the kind you find at expensive hotels.
• If you have a bathroom to call your own, remove all normal nick-nacks, towel rings, and toiletries. Clean the bathroom from top to bottom. Consider replacing the towel racks, the cabinet knobs, and towels with more elegant-looking items. Place travel-size soaps, toothpaste, and individually wrapped toothbrushes in baskets as if you’re having guests. Place new candles at different locations throughout the room. Never leave lit candles unattended or in reach of children.

Daily Outdoor Activity

One way how to enjoy your summer vacation at home is to make sure you schedule fun and relaxing outdoor activities daily, even if it’s only for 15 minutes. Outdoor activities will help keep your family and friends active as well. Whether it’s playing a game, taking the dog for a walk, or simply reading in a hammock, there are many things to do. Some people develop new outdoor exercise habits, such as walking, yoga, or running. Others begin a new hobby like geocaching or urban hiking. Who knew there was so much to explore in your neighborhood?

Turn Family Game Night into an Ongoing Tournament

Family game night can turn into a tournament. Keep in mind that the activities and games you choose will need to fit your family’s personality and be something they want to keep going. Try ongoing games of Chess, Monopoly, or Scattegories. One family found that tossing a ball between two family members and counting how many times they could do it before someone dropped it was delightful. By the end of the summer, that family got up to 585 tosses before someone dropped the ball again. The rule here is to keep things simple and fun.

Learn (or Invent) a New Language

With new apps coming out on the market all the time, now has never been a better time to learn a new language as a family. When learning how to enjoy your summer vacation at home, it could become a family goal to learn the same new language. By the end of the summer, it could be your new secret weapon that the kids will especially find enjoyable later. In public, they could commence somewhat private conversations during appropriate times. If your family is so inclined, consider trying to invent a new language meant just to be used by your family members.

Learn to Specialize in a New Line of Food

With the extra time and warmer weather making its appearance, many people try experimenting with a new type of food, cooking methods, or learning to bake. Obtaining the secret of how to enjoy your summer vacation at home can include learning to make healthy snacks like smoothies or popsicles.

Others decide to become grill masters. Grilling outside in the summertime brings hungry friends together while airing out any lingering kitchen smells! If possible, try cooking something different each night, like grilled veggies or chicken skewers using various sauces and marinades. Have fun trying new recipes and flavors.

Turn Your Swimming Pool into an Oasis

For those of you who have an outdoor pool, consider redoing the landscaping surrounding the pool. If you can, add a palm tree or two. Some families have chosen to drain their pools and embark on the art of swimming pool painting. By painting a mural or fun designs on your pool walls and bottom, it can create a whole new adventure the next time you take a dip.

Host Family Gatherings on a Flat Roof

If your home has a flat roof, consider hosting small dinners or family gatherings on top of it. The space can be decorated and used for date nights, movie nights, and stargazing. When stargazing is done for the night, some family members might try curling up in sleeping bags under the open sky. If you use the flat roof for any gatherings, make sure you have a safety fence installed around the edges to prevent tragic accidents.

While all those things are fun, other people might try using the space to increase the reach of their citizen band (CB) radios, short-range walkie-talkies, or their HAM radio. Some family members might use a small old satellite dish, chairs, popcorn, and cameras to pretend they are contacting visitors from space if that’s their thing.

Create One Room as a Library

Summer is an excellent time for book-lovers to turn one room into a library if you haven’t already started doing so. Gather all your favorite books and organize them. Put up new shelving, put some comfortable chairs in strategic places. Use a TV or a computer monitor to stream a crackling fireplace if you don’t have a real one. Even if you have a real fireplace, be mindful of your local ordinances on what heating sources can be used in what months and under what conditions. Some regional regulations have restrictions in place to prevent further air quality issues.

Refresh and Upgrade the Curb Appeal of Your Home

Work with an electrical contractor to install one or more individual lamp posts at the entryway to your property. These lamp posts can be made of iron, brass, or wood. You’ll want them wired so you can control them from the interior of your home. The new lamp posts create a different feel to your home, your sanctuary (or lair, depending on your personality), and your land.

Alternately, consider lining asphalt driveways with flowers or vegetables to further accent these driving spaces. Don’t forget to consult with appropriate pest control services to rid your property of bothersome mosquitoes, overrun spider populations, or bees’ nests. Look into any necessary tree trimming to add the final touches.

Have Someone Else do the Chores

Delegating certain chores can be a very relieving thing, help the tasks get done faster, and give you more quality time in the summer for things that matter to you most. Delegating tasks is one fundamental way of how to enjoy your summer vacation at home.

• Hire a house cleaner from a third-party service
• Pay the kids to do the chores
• Hire a neighborhood kid to mow the lawn

Take Turns Hosting the Neighborhood Kids

Work with your neighbors to take turns hosting the kids for an evening to give the other parents some quality time to themselves if they so desire. Each house could do something different on these nights as part of how to enjoy your summer vacation at home.

Communicate with the parents in-depth and agree beforehand on activities, what to do if there are disturbances or emergencies, food, beverage offerings, and approved activities. When discussing these things, include age-appropriate boundaries and talk about food and medical allergies.

Explore the Best Streaming Services

While learning how to enjoy your summer vacation at home, one thing many people do is swear an oath to get caught up on all their favorite TV shows, movies, or podcasts. Experimenting with the different streaming providers available today allows you to decide which ones you like and why and eventually settle on one or two you’d rather have for the rest of the year.

Some people use this time to start and explore new series found in their preferred media. By branching out your interests, you might find something new you enjoy.

Organize a Mystery and Tell No One

Think of this as like one giant game of Clue, except it’s happening in your home. Don’t worry; while finding ways of how to enjoy your summer vacation at home, you don’t have to have any actual bodies on your property. The mystery you devise can surround almost anything you choose. Examples can be the good old-fashioned who done it, a lost item people must find (like treasure), or clues from beyond the grave that solve a fictional ending to a historical event that’s important to your family.

No matter which one you choose, it’s essential to think through the mystery, the clues you’ll want to leave around the house, where you want to leave the clues, who will most likely be to find them, and what you want the result to be. Tell no one you’ve scattered clues around the house. Let people see them on their own.

When two or three are found, it will be time to start hyping up the mystery. Say things like “That’s odd” or “I wonder what this means.” If family members become concerned that someone has entered your home without your permission, reassure them they are safe and say things like “No, I’m sure this has always been here. We’ve just never seen it before,” or “You know how older homes can be.” Be sure to inform your partner of your plan if they are primarily concerned or worried.

As your family members begin the task of solving the clues, keep dropping different pieces of the puzzle to keep the buzz going. Try discussing the clues over family meals and see where it leads.

The attempt to do this can end in two ways: one, it will be successful with your family members obtaining the result you designed, or it will fail. Never let the mystery get dangerous, too scary, or illegal. Consider confessing to the organization of the puzzle if the activity takes a turn in the wrong direction. The goal is to be safe and have fun. Either way, your family will be amazed that something different happened this summer.

Conclusion

There are many ways to enjoy your summer vacation at home that will work with you and your family’s desires, interests, and personalities. With the list outlined here, you can be assured to find one or more things to try or combine to keep you and your family well entertained. No one should be bored in the summer or feel like their summer months were wasted.