What’s the favorite part of your outdoor living space?

So, there are many “final touches” I need to put on my space here, but the bones, or the foundation is here, and I LOVE it! And best part about it is so far I have spent VERY LITTLE $ because I’ve used things I already had, reused old items by adding some “color” with spray paint, or went down to Goodwill and got some items crazy cheap. I even went into Target this evening to looking for some new seat cushions (as you can see in the photo mine are SUPER weathered…and about 5 years old…so it’s time)…but I actually WALKED OUT OF TARGET WITHOUT SPENDING $! Is that crazy or what! They didn’t really have what I wanted but I almost got a few things anyway just because I was “in” there, but better yet I drove another ¼ mile down the road to Lowes and picked up a few more plants.

The 30 day challenge to not spend money, except on “necessary” things has really helped me out. I swear I woulda walked out with nearly $100 worth of “whatever” at Target tonight, but I thought twice, and thought, do I need these really? Can I get them at Goodwill? Can I find this on Craigslist for cheaper? Another point about not “buying” stuff, for me is to not buy new stuff, because there is already so much out there to be used/repurposed and the whole saying “one woman’s trash is another’s treasure.”…ugh yeah I changed that to say woman you bet!

Ahahah. Okay, so like I was saying when I went to Lowes (obviously) I bought plants and I also bought some bird seed to hopefully lure the birds into my yard. I don’t want them around ALL the time chirping and annoying me, so maybe I’ll regret it, but….I doubt it, it’ll be a lot more fun to see birds flying around in my yard than not, so I hope they come!

The plants I have bought over the past few days (I started upon my return from the “Big Trees” on Wednesday), so the last four days I have really been busy trying to get my yard/patio picked up, cleaned, plants planted, decorative items/pots spray painted and my little “living space” set up. I LOVE it I can’t say that enough! Today, this morning at 10am to be exact I had the two wooden lounge chairs with cushions delivered from someone on Craigslist and I got them for a STEAL! I mean, a CRAZY steal. They are originally $300 chairs (a piece!) So given that they are used they maybe are not worth that…but then again they ARE because wood never really “gets old,” I mean it does but you can make it last a lot longer by taking care of it. These chairs even have a little “side table “that pulls out from either side (without falling out) to set your tea or what have you.

How awesome is that! Today I laid out for at least a couple hours in the sun, and I put on some “ocean waves” music on my phone, closed my eyes and I felt like I was in PARADISE! Hey, if I can’t afford to go there I guess I can try my best to create it in my own backyard.

So one MAJOR thing missing is SHADE. I love the sun, so I am not that worried, but ALL the company I ever have over loves to have their shade, so I have coming (sometime next week) a nice 13’ red umbrella with the tilt capability that will stand on its own (with, yes, a VERY heavy base). I am going to put that in between the two sets of chairs, that way the loungers can still get the sun, and those sitting at the table can have their shade! And then, everyone wins!

If you haven’t noticed yet I have not even MENTIONED my lawn, nor is it in the photo…that is because my back yard (space) is MUCH BIGGER than I thought. When I actually started to put everything together I realized I needed to work one spot at a time, plus the lawn is where I am able (at this point) to continue doing all my spray painting! So for now, until I am 100% satisfied with the outcome of the FINAL living space project I won’t move on to the “greens.” But for now, I need to get the umbrella, new cushions, a small inconspicuous speaker to play music, and I’m thinking some lights (most likely LED operated) to string up around the umbrella etc. to create some light when we are all out here enjoying the WARM summer evenings to come. Also, an “oil” fire pit/table of some sort would be really nice. I do have a wood burning one, but I decided I don’t want to use wood, or buy wood, or have the smell of it on my clothes or have to worry about burning down the neighborhood. I just want it for the heat, so I think the best way to get that is the fire table OR better yet—-a HEAT LAMP! That would be beyond awesome. AS you can MAYBE tell I am UBER excited about all this coming to fruition! Update to come upon completion, until then, let me know what the favorite part of your outdoor living space is in the comment box below! Thanks!

What is your dream backyard?

Mine is a Spanish/Mediterranean inspired one! And I REALLY want it to be a reality! I am working/starting from nothing (almost)…but I’m thinking that there is a chance I can TRY to get it looking somewhat like what I want…

Of course, there really needs to be a fountain, preferably large with ornate tile detailing…but I could probably do with something smaller as long as it was also colorful and elegant. Maybe I could do a DIY fountain!

Hmm….that back/side fence…it’s only 6 feet tall or so…and the community I live in is only about 9 years old, so not too many of my neighbors really have matured vegetation/trees to block the view of one another. (I take that back) my back neighbor had 3 LARGE pepper trees that hung half in my yard and half in theirs. Turns out I guess they were not “doing well”, and the owner got rid of them in September! Don’t let me fool you though, I was “upset” that I had to trim it so much and had all its “mess” all over my back yard…but it did look more like a jungle than a house in a “subdivision”. So BE CAREFUL what you wish for, because sometimes I wished it wasn’t there and that I didn’t have to “deal” with it, but now it’s GONE! So…I was thinking HOW am I going to block my neighbors ASAP? Trees don’t grow overnight…and I thought…

A pergola! The one I have pictured below is a great idea to put along the entire fence line…and the idea of growing anything up/around them sounds very appealing. I’d definitely like to have some grape vines for some free and delicious grapes, but I’m also fondly thinking of wisteria SMELLING wonderful! I wonder, can I get a jasmine plant to grow up a pergola? I LOVE the smell of jasmine!

Okay, so that leaves me with my “floor” space. Right now, half is a boring stamped concrete and the other is a “patch” of grass that is honestly super ridiculous. (Especially when we have multiple well maintained community parks with much more grass, play structures, kid-friendly water features and the like). I’m going to keep my “future kids” out of my backyard design at this point. That means…I REALLY don’t think I need a patch of grass. It serves no purpose other than to cost me $ and wasted water to keep it “looking nice” which I can never quite figure out how to do anyway, half is green and half is not! To save $ I was thinking I should leave the stamped concrete (it’d be AWESOME to stain it though!) As for the patch, it’d give me another 15×8 feet minimum for “floor space” if I got rid of it! So, with that idea, I was thinking I could do a simple brick or rock design and with the same “stain” as the concrete so that they tied together but were “different” spaces.

Also, I have a back corner where two CRAZY like 8 foot tall rose (trees!) are growing (which sadly to say I’d like to get rid of). Roses are not pretty enough for me to want to deal with their thorns and the nasty critters that like living in them, so that when you DO want to cut a few to put inside to “liven up the place” that they start coming out of the woodwork! Yuck! I’m going to post them on CL in case anyone wants to come dig them up and try to replant them as they are 9 year old quite matured rose bushes that I’m sure someone could appreciate…just not me. Instead, I’d LOVE to make a “built in” fire place in that corner. My two simple white Adirondack chairs could go right in front of the fireplace.

Something I also need, or THINGS I need I should say, are LOTS of pots in different sizes of various colors. These need just be “set” out along the edges everywhere and next to any piece of “furniture” I have outside…that leaves me to my final huge spending idea (yeah yeah not to mention to fireplace I already talked about! Hahaha) But…I’d like a SECOND pergola to hang from my backdoor out over 80 percent or so of the old hardscape. This could grow more food/vines/flowers whatever…but super simple. Also, important to note, I would have it be about 8 feet (nothing crazy tall) and a BEAUTIFUL fan would be hung in the center, this is where I could put that second sitting space. As for now, I’d be “frugal” and use what I have, a small four chair outdoor wicker/glass patio set…which needs either a touch up of paint in a color, or a dark brown…and some CUSHIONS in COLOR!

Just writing this is making me excited. It’s too bad it still January. However, maybe some of the “building” could be done during the “winter” we have here? It stops raining mostly after February, so only a little bit left to go until I could start working! Best idea for me is to get FAMILY AND FRIENDS to help…and “PRETEND” like we are on an HGTV show! Having everyone “put up” in the local hotel for a few days, rewarded with bbqs and homemade lemonade! Sounds good to me! PLUS-families ALWAYS bond when they have to “work” together…mine does anyway!