Outdoor Dreamin’

Hello and welcome to the (almost) weekend! Got anything fun planned? Not much here other than time with my loves, maybe a little decluttering and DIY, and perhaps a nap. Perfect weekend at home. :)

It’s only 32 degrees here today but I’m dreaming of warmer weather already…we were teased with a lovely 65 degrees last weekend and it was fabulous!

We took advantage of the warm weather to address the…ahem, disaster that has been waiting for us on the deck.

Our lovely gazebo that I showed you a couple summers ago:

Started falling a few weeks ago (I just found this pic on my phone):

So sad. :(

It only got worse – the wind was CRAZY that few days and it was just getting more intense. Hubby was out of town and I was so afraid the whole thing was going to blow off and hit a neighbors house or something. So I decided to pull some of the cover off so it wouldn’t catch the wind as much. It helped, at least it didn’t fly away!:

Some of you suggested that maybe it could be salvaged but there was just no way. The steel braces that hold it on to the deck were bent and some ripped in two – insane! At least we know our deck is sound because it didn’t budge! :)

That cover acts like a parachute, I tell you what. It had been up for 18 months without an issue till now, the winds we had were just too much this time.

So anyway, last weekend we spent a couple hours taking it apart. The gazebo itself wasn’t too bad to disassemble – it was all the glass from the pretty lights we had up that we had to watch for. What a mess!!

Now we’re left with a wide open space again:

I need to get a cover for the stuff on here now, it’s been protected by the gazebo till now. (We don’t have a spot to store outdoor furniture over the winter.)

So now…we’re thinkin’. Thinking about what we could possibly put there in the future. I should say dreaming…because most of the ideas we like are spendy.

One thing we know for sure – no more fabric roofs!! It’s just not going to work. I love the look of pergolas – I’ve heard if they are built correctly you can block the sun for most of the day:

But we’ve been known to sit out there in the rain in the summer, and I like having the protection for the furniture. A pergola with a roof like this one would be perfect:

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Or this one too – I love the vines wrapped around it!:

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I found this one with the lattice across the top and loved the idea:

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Isn’t that brilliant? We could totally DIY at least that part! It wouldn’t keep all the water and sun out, but it would make a big difference.

I also loved this one – same lattice roof but curved:

I love the twinkly lights. :)

We also loved the idea of something fully covered, with a roof:

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A sweet little waterfall would be perfect too. ;)

I love the shape of this one, the shape is similar to what one on our deck would look like:

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And this one is AWESOME – with screens!!:

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This would be my dream because I am an absolute mosquito magnet in the summer. It’s horrible. We loved our gazebo because we could close all the screens and I could actually enjoy being out there.

But of course for the price of that one above, we could just built a screened porch onto the the house!!

Who knows what we’ll do and I don’t think it will even happen this year. Honestly we’re both kind of loving the deck open like it is right now. I guess it’s that whole less is more feeling we get this time of year. We’re digging it…who knows what I’ll be saying in July when I’m getting eaten alive by the skeeters. :)

What’s in your dream backyard? A covered gazebo? An open and airy pergola?

**As always, please visit the original source to pin the inspirational pics!