Screen House Guide

Camping can be a great activity for all types of people.  It presents an opportunity to get outdoors, enjoy the offerings of nature, and unwind from life in the "civilized" parts of the world.  In more unbuilt areas, we can gaze at the stars usually denied us by the light pollution of towns and cities, and breathe fresh air while surrounded by trees and vegetation.  There's only one problem with camping, though- sleeping in a tent.  If you've had the opportunity to sleep in a tent, you most likely never did it again unless absolutely necessary.  While tents are okay when the weather is perfect- cool and dry- most of the time you end up sweating, breathing heavy air due to poor circulation, and feeling very confined.  The thing about most tents is, they're mostly for protection against the rain.  Other times, they seem more like small torture chambers that we willingly enter, usually out of ignorance.  Proponents of lightweight backpacking will often take nothing but a tarp with them into the wild to rig up as covering, and then only when it's needed.  As a volunteer with SCA in the backcountry of the Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, most of the volunteers, including myself, slept out under the open sky.  Granted, this was in a desert environment that was very comfortable and dry at night.  There were also no mosquitoes or critters to bother us while we slept.  The point I wish to make is that you don't necessarily need a tent to go camping.  But if you do, you should consider getting a screen house instead.  In general, a screen house will be much more comfortable than a tent, as it's ventilated on all sides and allows for a breeze.  You won't have to wake up to a tent moist from your own condensed breath!  Because a screen house will have a waterproof roof in most cases, you have protection where you need it and can stay dry if it rains (unless there's a storm or driving rain).  And mosquitoes can hover futilely outside the screened walls while you sleep in peace.  With a screen house, you can have what you were after in the first place when you decided to go camping- a more intimate connection to nature.  For those that don't need to "get away from it all" and appreciate the nature on offer at home, you can also incorporate a screen house into the home, creating a comfortable area for relaxing or entertaining visitors while keeping the bugs out.   

So what makes up a screen house?  They are actually very similar to tents, and are usually available in extruded aluminum.  Of course, you also have the option of screening off a porch or other outdoor area which already has the framework in place to support the screening, in which case you stand to save money and effort.  
Camping screen houses are very affordable, starting from under $50 (USD) to several hundred dollars.  The price range reflects differences in quality, size of the screen house, and also features, like a rain fly to keep dry in case of rain.  The frame will usually consist of poles made of lightweight aluminum, and the walls and roof will usually be of ripstop nylon, which is very durable and resists tearing.  Like most newer camping tents, screen houses will usually be easy and quick to assemble and break down to fit into a small bag for carrying.  One great thing about many screen houses is that they are designed to be set up on top of a picnic table and are thus off the ground, making bugs and snakes less likely to enter as well as allowing better ventilation and cooling to take place naturally.  The screen house also doesn't get dirty from direct contact with the ground, making cleaning a breeze.  The Coleman screen house is one of the most popular choices for campers, as this company is well known for producing a wide range of quality camping gear.  The Coleman Geodome screen house, with a 15 x 15 floor, retails for $179.99 and is a great choice for car campers.  The dome structure provides for a more spacious feel much like a yurt does- it seems that rounder structures feel more spacious than square structures of the same size. 
Getting a Casita screen house may be a good choice for creating a screened, freestanding outdoor space in the yard.  Casita screen houses are available in rounder forms that are more pleasing to be in.  They are not really round, but octagonal, but the quality of the space is still preferable to a square structure.  Of course, more sides can mean more effort in setting up, so keep this in mind when choosing a screen house.  For most people, the quality of space afforded by a round outdoor screen house