Patio Facelift

Today I made good progress on the patio area. A while ago Brandon put up a picket fence to keep the dogs off the patio and away from the house. This created a nice area where we could spend some time when the weather is nice without being slobbered on. I love reading Better Homes and Gardens and I would love for my patio to look like something out of the magazine, but it's not going to happen...the things in those pictures are a lot of work and take a lot of money! So here's what I did on a small budget: I bought a triangular shade sail (basically a big piece of canvas) instead of building a permanent structure and mounted it on four by fours from another project that Brandon took apart when he moved the shed. I already had two chairs, so I bought two more and a small table (we had a large table that the dogs destroyed and didn't have the money to buy a new one) so now I have a nice sitting area under the shade. I ordered seat cushions from Amazon (still waiting for those) and I put a plant on the table and between two of the chairs. It looks great! I have some plants along the edge of the fence, but my goal will be to get more along with some candles to set around to keep the bugs away. I'm also thinking of stringing up some Christmas lights as a finishing touch. Now if only the inside of the house looked as good!