Summer Loving: Outdoor Improvements

I know that many of you have noticed I haven't been around all that much this summer, so this week, I thought I would share some of what we have been doing before the summer is over.

Nathan especially has been spending a lot of time outside this summer working on the yard, and I've been known on occassion to help him out. One of the biggest projects he has taken on are the raised beds, which you've seen before here.

Now, the beds have not only filled in, but the path has been laid down.

I love the way this turned out, and Nathan put a lot of work into it. It's especially nice to sit on the back patio with a drink when it's cool and see how nice the beds and the path look. Speaking of sittting...

We also added a new seating area on the newly expanded back patio. We had some chairs that went with our patio table originally that started falling apart, because they used the vinyl webbing and it eventually started tearing.

The bases were still really awesome though, because they swiveled, so Nathan removed all of the broken webbing and ordered vinyl strap material off the internet as a replacement.

He first drilled holes on each side of the chair and cut the straps to the right length. Once the straps were cut, he drilled holes on either end and made a triangle shape on the ends so they would fit underneath the chair frame. The straps then must be stretched acrros the frame, and plastic pins fit in the holes in the frame. Here's a work in progress:

I had planned on making chair covers for them, but then we found these at Target on clearance for $8, which is cheaper than it would be if I made them.

So that's how we were able to repurpose chairs we already had to create a fun seating area. I also added a coffee table I found at Target, as well.