Like a Bug in Brandy
I’m finding it so hard to spend any time on the computer lately, because it’s so hard to be indoors at all! Austin has to be The Greatest Place on Earth this week. The weather is perfect, the birds are singing, and everyone is just a little bit happier.
Also! Green! Since I moved here in December, everything has been brown. I didn’t know that my backyard has shade! Or that there are flowers out front! Or that my tree isn’t dead!
This is what I’ve been doing…
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I got a gazebo, and I don’t even care that I have a real house anymore.
I might just move the fridge out here and sell the house to someone else. |
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This is my back patio before. Concrete slab. |
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Now it’s an oasis of bug-free shade. And I’m not even done with it yet!
I’m currently “extending” the concrete with a border of pavers and pebble gravel. I will also add some potted plants, string some xmas lights, and (someday) get some new patio furniture. |
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This photo doesn’t do it justice, but it’s a room. A room with a breeze blowing through it.
All of this wonderfulness was only 200 bucks from Home Depot, plus three hours of assembly. |
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A rare moment indoors. |
April 14th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Oh that looks so nice! Expect a steady stream of visitors!(please put me on the list)
Great post, great photos!
April 14th, 2008 at 8:45 am
Please keep showing us pictures as your gazebo patio oasis grows. It looks great and gives me(us?) some ideas on how to improve our own. Thanks! (Oh to be in Austin, now that spring is here… or something like that)
April 14th, 2008 at 8:47 am
It looks very tropical. MUCH better than the beads I have hanging in my doorway.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Okay, I totally envy you for your bug freedom. If there is a mosquito or fly within a 10-block radius, it will home in on me and probably try to explore my hair. Thus, I kill anything with wings and more than 4 legs.
April 14th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Aren’t gazebos grand. We got one last year from Home Depot and I loved to go out there to read or knit. We haven’t opened ours up this year yet, but I am getting anxious. Right now, ours is on a patch of grass, but we have plans to put down some pavers and add some foliage to make it even more inviting.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:08 am
i’d drag a futon out there and sleep outdoors too
April 14th, 2008 at 10:31 am
So lovin’ that look! You inspire me.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I hear the weater in Austin is so much nicer than Houston and from the looks of it, it must be. Your gazebo looks like a fabulous oasis! I’m sure you will enjoy it from now until probably next November.
April 14th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Abe seems to silently approve of the patio
April 14th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Haha … what did you say to Abe to make him cock his head like that?
Lovely gazebo!
April 14th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Your back yard looks fabulous !! I have been catching up on your news, you and the B’s look very happy, Austin looks wonderful ! Is it the netting that keeps the bugs away, or something else ? I have been trying candles but the bugs are starting to bug me.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:20 am
OMG, I am SO getting one of those next paycheck! We have a great big cement slab out back that we can’t enjoy because the sun just sizzles the shit out everything, but with a gazebo . . . Woo! Party central! Thanks for the idea, Staci!
April 14th, 2008 at 11:31 am
i might actually want to be outdoors in my yard if i had one of those. perhaps, papa, sammie and i will discuss it.
i’ll be sure to give you a heads up if i ever leave wisconsin for an actual vacation. i may be coming to your neck of the woods. it always looks so inviting.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Love the pictures of your yard and the gazebo, but I have one question: where is the possum?
April 14th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
i love the gazebo…makes me want to get one. i can’t stand the heat…
the boys are so cute - all relaxed and stuff.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Oh how lovely! We bought our gazebo last year at Lowe’s during their closeout sale. Got the $350 thing for a mere $150. However, it took us almost 5 hours to put it together! Or maybe it just felt like 5 hours. Regardless, the instructions said it should take two people two hours to put together. That’s with proper instructions, which we didn’t have.
Still, it’s survived being outdoors all winter, several high windstorms and a tornado. I’d say it’s here for the long run. Now I just have to wait for it to get warm enough for me to be outside in it.
April 14th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
So cool, enjoy
Ginny, Callie and Jack
Tampa
April 15th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Very cool, I love it. Can’t wait to see it when it is done. The boys look exceptionally cute today too.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:50 am
I’m moving in with you! Can I bring a golden retriever?
April 15th, 2008 at 7:51 am
OMG, I am so jealous. What a life. I have been doing some knitting outside. Last week was warm and sunny here in Pennsylvania. Got a nice tan because I don’t have a lovely gazebo but I do have a huge oak tree which gives us lovely shade in the summer when the leaves are opened. Right now the oak is just budding, which means flowers soon then leaves. Spring is the best. Enjoy!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:52 am
I was just saying to my husband last week, that I really miss the Austin Spring. The gorgeous weather.
I had no idea those gazebos are only $200!
April 16th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Love, love, love the gazebo. This is what I’m looking at.
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
Fits right in a corner of my back yard.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Great gazebo. Wouldn’t work here in Yorkshire England however. The winds coming off the Bronte Moors would soon huff and puff and blow it down.
Les
April 27th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
We had a gazebo until last year. Then some kind of freak weather incident rendered it rather unusable. We do still have the frame up in the backyard. Which, I’ve decided, is the Oregon equivalent to having a car up on blocks in your front yard.