The House

Short on time (much gardening and more painting to do), this is the Cole's Notes version of my deck make-over:

Dull and in dire need of some sprucing up, I set out to brighten and whiten with what felt like forty coats of paint with a solid stain and one (yes one!) coat of a beigey stain on the deck floor. Why? Sheer laziness and nothing the purchase of a great outdoor rug (on sale for $31 at Zellers!) won't mask...

The handyman took the old top off his original table (and employing old Singer sewing machine legs he found in the woods many years ago). I spray-painted the legs silver for a change and he built a new table, which I promptly painted.

He also built new space-saving benches to replace our bulkier metal chairs and I picked up some great bright yellow chairs at Winners ( = T.J. Maxx/HomeGoods).

Moved everything around, bought a new barbecue cover for our start-of-season-new-purchase of one and re-used the stripey umbrella, now five years old.

Other details: cork placemats from Walmart, vintage blue vase from the Meads, and tulips bought for myself from the grocery store.

And that's that!