Eleven Screenshots
A concrete fire pit, the ultimate summer porch, and a very specific nostalgia.
I have at least 11 screenshots of the exact same giant fire pit saved in my camera roll right now.
I’m not even looking at them anymore. At this point, I’m just manifesting.
You know I consider myself a borderline professional internet sleuth. It’s a core facet of my personality that I can spot a leopard chair in the background of a random Architectural Digest tour and find you three versions at three price points before my coffee even cools.
But this fire pit. And that one French soap dispenser I saw on TikTok three years ago.
They are the two unsolved cases keeping me from claiming a perfect record.
So consider this an open case file. When I finally find it (and I will), you’ll hear about it here first, probably in a deeply unhinged 6 a.m. post. And if you’ve seen it somewhere (a giant, brutalist concrete situation), please reply to this email. I will personally owe you a jalapeño marg.
Because that’s still the dream: one day we take this whole group chat offline. The coolest, kindest people I’ve managed to find on the internet, drinking margs around a giant piece of concrete, talking about anything and everything.
Which leads me, naturally, to the cozy summer porch.
There was no way we could start this series anywhere else.
To me, summer starts and ends on the porch.
Every year I build this very specific list of porch must-haves, and I’m incredibly picky about it because I’m not shopping for furniture. I’m chasing a very specific brand of nostalgia.
I want a porch that feels like:
The rhythmic back and forth of an Adirondack.
Morning coffee in the quiet humidity before the world wakes up.
Looking out to see Grandpa already in the pool.
The faint hum of a radio floats through the screen door when you pull into the driveway.
A chaotic, beautiful pile of colorful towels and pool floats baking in the sun.
I’ve spent months testing deck stains. I’ve hunted down outdoor furniture that actually survives (Texas-tested). And I found a few fire pit alternatives that almost…almost made me forget about the eleven screenshots.
Let’s get into it.
In the remainder of this edition:
The exact ten pieces,
The resort tree lighting trick nobody talks about,
The stain breakdown I spent way too long testing
This is the actual research: dozens of hours of deep-diving, returning, and weather-testing so you don’t buy the wrong Adirondack twice. It also happens to cost about one jalapeño marg a month. Love you, see you on the other side!