Freedom of the Yard

YAY!!! Our fence finally went in today! Even though we are still waiting on a few parts, it's a functional fence so we can play in the backyard without running after Kenwood into the water and without having our precious Owen on a leash!!  Poor Owen has been sitting at the back door 24/7 gazing out wishing he could run and play without being on a leash...it's really been the saddest thing EVER!!!!  So, tonight we made our debut in a fenced backyard and had some fun!! It was a BEAUTIFUL night!!

Kenwood was so excited he started dancing...

  Doing his little dancin' jig

 Danced so hard he was SOOO THIRSTY!

 Kenwood's first dinner on the back porch!

 Owen has longed for freedom of the yard for a few weeks now....he's excited!

Backyard..UGH

Ok! So I'm trying desperately to convince Dillon that we need a backyard makeover. So, he at least agreed to let me have a landscape designer come by to bid out an estimated cost of "remodeling" our backyard.  This included, tearing down the fence/planters; putting up a new fence, re-sodding, firepit, graveling the side of the house for a golf cart "driveway" and building pergola-type roof for our golf-cart "garage" next to the shed.  Needless to say, apparently backyards are even more expensive than living rooms!!! So, the landscape designer came today...I got the bid and then I proceeded to look at the price...my dreams were immediately shot to hell.  Here is what I'm working with--I sent these oh-so-intriguing pictures to several landscape TV shows in hopes one of them would have pity on us.  But, apparently people don't film shows in good 'ol Oklahoma City.  Whatever.

In the midst of this I am now trying to talk Dillon into the following:

Demo-ing the fence/beds ourselves and hiring a fence company to put up a new 3ft cedar/capped fence--same height as our current fence but it will look tons better.

Hiring someone to come re-sod our yard

Then furnishing our covered patio with this inspiration I got from the oh-so-my-style Pottery Barn catalog but on our minimized budget that doesn't include affording Pottery Barn:

*Rustic table, bench, and chairs...the lanterns are hanging from a rustic ladder by rope. I'm in love. BUT I am not however, in love with what this little dreamscape would set us back dollar-wise. YIKES.  Instead...I will go to our favorite store.. El Paso Imports for the same look at HALF the price. Literally.

The lanterns would still be bought from Pottery Barn...same sizes as shown in the picture--8 lanterns.

The rustic ladder the lanterns are hanging from--I found an antique store online that has 5ft wooden ladders (same as PB) for $29.95---pretty appealing versus the $199 tag on the PB ladder.

Table:

*in a darker wood--see chair below-- or in an ivory antique similar to the color of the chair covers in the PB inspiration picture.  The great thing about El Paso is they will custom the color for FREE.  I love them.

Chairs:

Bench:

*in whatever color the table choice is.