SCOTCH PLAINS, NJ After the coronavirus crushed her fairy tale wedding, Scotch Plains bride-to-be Rebecca Citarella is hosting a drive-in live affair on her family's front porch.

"The wedding is definitely not what I envisioned," Citarella said. "Every girl imagines the perfect princess day, but I am definitely excited and looking at it more for the excitement to start a new life with my fiance."

Citarella, 20, and West Point Cadet Brandon Fast, 22, met in August online, quickly fell in love and got engaged on Halloween. They were supposed to get hitched this past Saturday at West Point at the Cadet Chapel.

"It is this gorgeous chapel, very cool, like a castle," Citarella said. "The reception was also going to be up there near the Hudson Valley area with 250 people coming. It was going to be a big wedding. My mom was very excited."

Citarella said once the coronavirus hit, it was tough. It postponed Fast's graduation to this weekend, which Citarella can no longer attend. This caused the wedding to be pushed to June 24. It did, however, allow the couple to have a few months to be quarantined together.

"Of course, you want a nice, special wedding with limousines and everything else, but it is more important to spend this special time with the person you are marrying," Citarella said. "We are trying to make best of it. If we waited for the entire world to open up again, then we would never get married."

Creating their own special day, the couple will be transforming Citarella's childhood home into a romantic setting for family and friends to see the wedding ceremony. Citarella's parents are putting up lace as a backdrop, re-seeding the grass and planting flowers, and her father has taken on woodworking to build a cross and benches.

Citarella hopes to be able to close off a section of her street to be able to have guests watch the ceremony from their cars.

"Like a drive-in movie theater," Citarella said. "We will be following social distancing especially for my grandparents, who can't be exposed to anything .... They will still be able to park and watch the ceremony on the porch from their car."

With everything being canceled, the couple was unable to recoup a lot of their money from vendors such as the DJ, photographer, and more. However, Citarella said the town and residents have been "great."

Locals have donated flowers and other services to allow Citarella and Fast to still have their special day. A friend will be doing the photography, and they will use a playlist instead of a DJ.

"We are still looking for a cake," Citarella said. "We are just trying to do this in the most affordable way, since we lost a lot of money."

The backyard will serve as the space for the reception, with just the immediate families. Citarella does not know how many people will be allowed to attend, as the number allowed by Gov. Phil Murphy keeps changing. As of Monday, 25 people are allowed to gather.

"We don't know the circumstances and what to expect, but we still plan to do a first dance and speech. We want to do a livestream for anyone who can't be there," Citarella said.

Citarella recently had a Zoom bridal party with games. She said even though it was virtual, she was able to see people who live farther away who may have not been able to attend in person.

"We are definitely making the best of it," she said.

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Scotch Plains Bride Hosts Drive-In Porch Wedding Amid Coronavirus - Scotch Plains, NJ Patch

It will be hot and dry today before low storm chances return to East Texas tonight. Highs this afternoon will be in the mid and upper 90s. Any storms tonight would be weakening as they approach the area from the north, and most locations will stay dry.

Today

Partly sunny, with a high near 94. Heat index values as high as 98. South southwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Tonight

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms between 11pm and 2am. Mostly clear, with a low around 73. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Saturday

Sunny, with a high near 95. Heat index values as high as 102. Calm wind becoming east northeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.

Saturday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 74. East northeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 95. Light east wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Sunday Night

Partly cloudy, with a low around 73. East northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Monday

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 88. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Monday Night

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. North northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest after midnight.

Tuesday

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 96. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Tuesday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 70.

Wednesday

Sunny, with a high near 91.

Wednesday Night

Mostly clear, with a low around 64.

Thursday

Sunny, with a high near 92.

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Hopkins County Weather Forecast for June 5th, 2020 Front Porch News Texas - frontporchnewstexas.com

I usually read the Cape Gazette on the patio with my brother John, who lives next door to me in Pelican Point Long Neck, said Antonia Salandra Gonzalez.

Today I decided to read the paper on my front porch to enjoy the beautiful landscaping job that my sister in law, Mary Salandra, did for my husband, Tony and I. Its such a good,secure feeling to know you have family living next door to rely upon. I wish Mom and Dad were still alive to enjoy living in a beach community with us in Delaware. Life could not be better and when our families come to visit (pre-pandemic period) they would enjoy staying with all of us and traveling back and forth between the two houses. It is just like how it was when we lived in the house in The Bronx NY and the relatives came to see Grandma and Grandpa who lived with us in a two-family house. Everyone just flowed between both apartments. It is funny how life imitates the past!

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Enjoying the Cape Gazette on the front porch - CapeGazette.com

The phrase, come and sit a spell, invites family and friends to rest and relax in the company of one another. Particularly in the South, a welcoming spot to enjoy this time of reprieve is the frontporch.

Vicksburg Living, as part of the upcoming July/August edition, is searching for families and their front porches to be featured in the magazine.

During the past few months, not only have front porches become a beloved spot to unwind, but they also served as a means of appreciating the outdoors during shelter-in-place orders as part of the communitys response to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Vicksburg Post photographer Courtland Wells is scheduling appointments for families wanting to participate in what we are calling a community project. In addition to a photograph of families enjoying their porches; the magazine is asking those families, in their own words, to share what their homes front porch has meant to them during this pandemic.

For more information or to schedule an appointment call 601-636-4545. Those wanting to participate can also use the following link to register. Visithttps://forms.gle/d4E74PNwMFpAAEMu7to select a date and time.

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Vicksburg Living wants to feature community families and their front porches - The Vicksburg Post - Vicksburg Post

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The Porch restaurants to reopen in Pittsburgh area - TribLIVE

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There is a type of heroism in those just simply staying home during the Coronavirus pandemic

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Throughout the coronaviruspandemic, IndyStar hasdocumented the heroism of essential workers risking their wellness on the front lines of healthcare facilities, community centers and grocery stores.

But how does onedepict the impact of those who aresimply staying home?

As spring arrivedand thepandemic ragedon, front porches everywherebecame a responsible place to seek fresh air and a bit of distancedsocial interaction.

The front porch is a study spot, a selfie studio, a home gym anda lookout place forfamiliar faces as evening settles.

I took my camera out on warm evenings to photograph everyday people on the porch with their loved ones, an ode to the heroism of staying home.

Follow IndyStar visual journalist Jenna Watson on Twitter @jennarwatson.

Read or Share this story: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/marion-county/2020/05/19/portraits-porch-heroism-staying-home/5205102002/

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Portraits from the porch: An ode to the heroism of staying home - IndyStar

Photo: Getty / Getty Images

The post-coronavirus pandemic home will have more walls, more porches, more flex rooms and dedicated office areas, plus tiny houses for mom and dad

Your home has been called upon to play many different roles during the past few months of the coronavirus pandemic. Its been an office, schoolhouse, videoconference room, home gym and more.

Often, however, its performance has been lacking, thanks to slow internet service, uncomfortable seating and uncooperative co-workers (i.e. noisy children).

After spending so much time indoors during the pandemic, many people may want to upgrade their living space by rethinking their homes layout. Others may want to renovate their homes to take advantage of outdoor space or move to a new home that does.

Making these kinds of changes is a long, slow process, said Adam Reed, vice president at Ford Powell & Carson Architects & Planners. Were still in the midst of pandemic, so its too soon to know exactly what changes well see yet.

In recent years, the open floor plan, where the kitchen, dining room, living room and den were one uninterrupted, wall-free space, has been falling out of favor. The pandemic may hasten that trend.

In a home with two adults, several school-age children and, as has become commonplace, a boomerang adult child or two all living under one roof, finding someplace private to work has become important.

Many families may need several discrete places to work, architect Stephanie Eugster said. Its lovely that you get to spend most of the day with your family, but everyone needs a place for themselves.

While it is possible to build walls and hang doors to partition off spaces, Eugster said she doesnt see that happening very widely. Instead, the flex room may be the answer. A concept borrowed from office buildings, these are rooms that, with little effort, can be customized to serve multiple purposes.

On ExpressNews.com: The coronavirus will change office design, bringing back cubicles and nixing break rooms

For example, the dining room, long on the outs in new builds, may make a comeback, serving as a workspace during the week and a place to entertain guests when home entertaining becomes a thing again. Or a home office located in a repurposed bedroom might be furnished with an easy-to-move desk so it can quickly be converted back to a bedroom for weekend guests.

With so many people living together, there may be a boom in soundproofing curtains, second walls, composite materials so mom or dad can take a Zoom meeting or conference call while young children are running around, predicted Kathryn ORourke, associate professor of art history at Trinity University.

She also speculated about new housing arrangements to provide a separate space for aging parents or adult children who have lost their jobs. These include more tiny houses or even shipping containers in suburban backyards. She also foresees more houses with wings that can be occupied semiprivately, while still connected to a common kitchen or dining area.

People may be rethinking domesticity in really interesting ways because of this pandemic, she said.

While its still early to know how, or even if, the pandemic will change what homebuyers look for in a new home, Kim Bragman said shes already seeing an uptick in interest in one area.

Couples who both work from home want dedicated office space, said Bragman, the chairwoman of the San Antonio Board of Realtors. Or at least an extra bedroom they can convert into an office.

COVID-19 fears also may result in a shift in the definition of luxury, according to Reed.

It might not mean installing the most beautiful of faucets in the master bath anymore, he said. Instead it might be a touchless faucet with a built-in filtration system.

This wont be the first time a disease has triggered substantial changes in residential architecture.

The tuberculosis epidemic of the 19th century and the 1918 influenza both spurred the creation of large sanatoria open to the outdoors so patients could get plenty of fresh air and sunlight, thought to be key to a patients recovery, ORourke said.

This open-air concept eventually spilled over into residential architecture.

You can see it in those large front porches built into so many homes from that time, she said.

Front porches have long been out of favor with developers. Few homes built since the 1950s have them. But the pandemic may change that as many people rediscover the simple joys of sitting on their porch, watching the world go by.

On ExpressNews.com: The secret pleasures of under-the-radar chats during Zoom video conference calls

After youve been living in your home or apartment for so many weeks, you appreciate being outdoors, even if its only sitting on a porch waving to your neighbors as they walk by on the street, said Ted Flato, partner at Lake | Flato Architects. Its an easy way to add more living space to your home.

Adding a porch to an existing home is simpler and less expensive than adding a heated and air-conditioned extension, such as a bedroom or den. The website Homeadvisors.com, which matches homeowners with contractors, estimates that a 200-square-foot covered porch will cost between $4,600 to $22,000, or an average of $10,500. That works out to $23 to $110 per square foot.

At the beginning of the pandemic, many people sent home to work plopped a computer onto their kitchen or dining room table and declared it an office. But those wholl be working from home for the foreseeable future may want to up their internet game.

Perhaps the best way to do this is to wire the home with Category 5, or Cat 5, cables. These are low-voltage wires that can be run through the walls, the attic or even the subflooring. They connect the router to the devices plugged into the network so you dont have to use Wi-Fi. The connection provides a faster, steadier and more secure signal, so colleagues will be less likely to freeze up during your next Zoom conference.

Weve been seeing a lot more new houses built with Cat 5 in recent years, said Irby Hightower, a senior principal at Alamo Architects, and homeowners are also installing the cables in existing homes.

Cat 5 also makes it easier to install and operate smart home devices that can be controlled over the internet, such as security cameras, lighting and door locks.

As more people work from home, this kind of technology will become a lot more prominent, Hightower said.

Multifamily apartments will pose their own challenges to post-pandemic architecture, said Rick Lewis, assistant professor in practice at the University of Texas at San Antonios College of Architecture, Construction and Planning.

You have between 300 and 500 people living in the kind of developments that have been going up in San Antonio over the past 10 years or so, he said. Social distancing is much harder here, especially in the public spaces.

Lewis said he foresees changes to building codes requiring an enlargement of so-called pinch points where people come in close contact to one another. These include mail areas, hallways and elevator waiting areas. He also said amenities such as party rooms, weight rooms and swimming pools may get smaller or even disappear if residents remain uncomfortable using them.

Therell be a lot of conversation about things like this among architects, urban planners and politicians in the coming years, he said.

Not everyone is convinced the pandemic will result in structural changes in residential architecture.

Weve had viruses in the past and, yes, this one is deeper, longer and with more consequences, architect Paul Franklin said. But Im not anticipating any permanent changes per se. I think this is largely a one-off thing.

And while home shoppers may be looking for different features today than they were four months ago, Bragman said that for most, their bottom line remains the same.

Until I see otherwise, todays buyers are looking for schools and amenities, same as they always have, she said.

rmarini@express-news.net

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The post-coronavirus pandemic home will have more walls, more porches, more flex rooms and dedicated office areas, plus tiny houses for mom and dad -...

The weather is great and everyone is outside, but you cant interact like you used to do because of the pandemic and the government-recommended six-foot social distancing rule. But luckily, that rule doesnt mean you have to be socially distant and you can still interact with people as long as youre smart, aware, and give each other some space. Like interacting with an ex-lover or estranged family member. Enter the porch.

Porches are great, theyre public and private at the same time, inside and outside. IF eyes are the window to your soul, porches are the windows to our homes well, windows are the windows, but you get my meaning.

Porches are a silent hero in our neighborhoods during the pandemic as they allow us to interact with passerby without putting ourselves at risk in the street. They operate as a soft edge, or membrane between individuals and the community in which they live and should be celebrated.

The folks over at The Musicant Group (Website) in St. Paul, Minnesota, have come up with a step-by-step process to transform porches and front yards into places that make your community feel more alive. People are converting their boring swaths of manicured grass into more dynamic places that can facilitate safe, neighborly interactions and we cant think of a better time for that to happen than right now.

Click HERE for a Pinterest Board full of fun and amazing ideas to activate your front yards.

It also happens to be Global Porch Placemaking Week from May 30-June 5, and before you yell at us that thats not even a thing, click HERE. Its a self-organized event that encourages people to activate their front yards, porches, or even stoops, with a fun project and to add it to a special Porch Placemaking map. Get some inspiration via their Facebook page HERE.

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Stay connected with a friendly front yard - bungalower - Bungalower

BATON ROUGE - One local jazz band is shaking off the rust from the stay-at-home order in a unique way.

Since the band members havent been able to play together in the past two months, The Jazz Souls have started playing, what they call, 'front porch sessions' in the Poets Corner neighborhood of Baton Rouge.

Were the type of people that if were not playing, you get this itch. Its nice to be able to scratch it, upright bass player David Randall said.

That itch had been building for weeks for Randall and the other three members of the band.

We play jazz standards, some might call us an American songbook band, drummer and founding member of the band Dale Harris said.

For two months, the group of 12 years had no gigs to play, and no practice sessions together.

So, we missed that during the outbreak. And Gary says... no, it was my idea. I said, let's get on our porch, thats enough social distancing. And let the neighbors listen if they want but lets practice. I really missed it, Randall said.

We sounded a lot better than we thought we would, having not played together for a while. We thought we were going to sound pretty terrible. But, I dont know, sounded pretty good. The people seem to enjoy it, Harris said.

Thursday night was only their third front porch gig on the corner of Homer and Pericles Street, but theyve already acquired some neighborhood fans.

It was quite a surprise the other day when about 10, 15 people showed up, and actually, threw money in the tip jar. It was sweet. We werent looking for that. Though we did put the tip jar out, Randall said.

Randall says theres a lot of noise surrounding our lives right now, but not the kind you tap your feet to.

We take the masks off when we play. I have it in my pocket, dear, I promise, Randall said, laughing.

Jokes aside, he says this time has given him a greater overall appreciation for his passion for music.

I didnt even realize how much live music there already was in Baton Rouge, and its gonna come back. Slowly, but surely, Randall said.

The Jazz Souls will be playing at least once a week either on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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Local jazz band shaking off the rust with neighborhood front porch sessions - WBRZ

A new outdoor porch big enough for six socially-distanced picnic tables decked out in Red Arrow checkerboard style. Photo/Carol Robidoux

MANCHESTER, NH Theres something brewing at the Red Arrow Diner on Lowell Street besides coffee.

A new outdoor seating area that stretches the length of the diner is ready for customers, says Jayme Lemay, General Manager.

Now you can eat your Smokey Pig Breakfast Bowl with a mug of bacon while enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.

At first we were a little skeptical about it, but once we saw it, its pretty amazing, Lemay said. He really did a great job.

He is a reference to Brian Lawrence, brother of Carol Lawrence, the woman behind the citys most iconic eatery. The wood structure supports a sloping green vinyl topper, which appears to snap on. There are four tables under the enclosed area and two more out in the sunshine.

Its almost ready, Lemay said. Were going to have a fence around it here, and umbrellas are on the way for these two tables.

Diners wishing to sit and eat rather than grab and go can enter the diner and place their order, and let servers know theyre sticking around. Food will be served on the porch.

The picnic tables should provide about the same space if not more than the existing indoor tables, which is a win for eateries like the Red Arrow, where counter seating is the most popular option. During the states Stay Home 2.0 order indoor dining has been off-limits, but there was a return to outdoor dining on May 18. Restaurants are looking forward to the next phase which should include indoor dining at a reduced capacity.

The new rules of engagement or lack thereof has encouraged restaurant owners like Lawrence to get creative with use of available space.

It went up like magic, said a man named Charlie who was admiring the construction from across the street. He said he watched it go up.

It took like two days. And look how nice and straight it is, he said. This is going to be nice.

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And like that, Red Arrow's new outdoor porch is ready for the return of restaurant dining - Manchester Ink Link