Although we’ve lived in our house for nearly four years, we haven’t spent much time relaxing in the backyard because we didn’t have any real patio furniture. That was one of those projects that was always on The List but never made it to the top. Last month, I found a table and chair set at Lowe’s that would work great and was much less expensive than the ones I’d been considering. So I jumped on it.

To give it some shade, I found a huge (11-foot!) patio umbrella at PatioShoppers.com. Finally, I picked up a big deck storage box to hold all the boys’ toys, a much better solution than the old method of leaving them loose in the backyard. We’re already enjoying our new backyard and had dinner on the patio Friday night. There’s something about being outside that makes me feel more alive and more connected to the world.

We have some other plans under consideration for down the road, such as a true cover for the porch, expanding and tiling the porch, removing the treehouse, replacing the old fences, and adding some landscaping. However, just adding the table and chairs is a huge improvement. Here are a few pictures:

The final product

The boys with the new table.

Us enjoying dinner before the umbrella arrived.