We’ve been working on the exterior of the house these past few months making it hang-worthy. We’re just about finished landscaping the front section (which we get lots of compliments on) and have been slowly working on making our back patio a second “living room.” Our biggest road block with the back patio, however, was purchasing the furniture. Patio furniture is expensive! But there are always ways around that, including buying second-hand furniture.
Mr. LH has been scouring furniture on Craigslist lately for both our patio and guest room and found this awesome Hampton Bay conversation set a guy was selling. The set still retails for $600, but we got it for $250 including the large umbrella. SCORE! The set is about a year old and in really good condition. We’re thrilled with our patio set and it’s a great start to making our patio an awesome hang out area. We’ve had guests comment on how relaxing it is on the back patio (“resort-like” were the exact words). Just to put the patio into perspective, the set takes up one-fourth of our patio, so we still have room for a grilling area and possibly a dining table.
On a side note, you can see in the photos we’ve been making progress on the landscaping in the back area. The grass patch near the patio set is coming in slowly and the red aptenia on the slope is doing great, but we’re leaving a section bare at the top of the slope for a future low-height wall. The wall would just cover the concrete drain behind our house which is functional, but an eye-sore. And the tall, brown grass is on the hillside behind our house that hasn’t been mowed back this year, yet. Our community is on a wait list for getting the hillside mowed for fire season. Next up is working on the side yard landscaping closest to the patio.
With our gorgeous year-round weather here in sunny Southern California, I can envision us sitting out here all year-long.
