Life, Love & Pawprints: (Free) DIY Patio Makeover

As you all know, we moved a little over a month ago to a new place, about 45 minutes away from where we were before.

There are quite a few reasons for why we left where we did, because really, we LOVED our house. We always said if we could have picked it up and taken it with us we would have.

It just wasn't in the best neighborhood. And I'm being very nice putting it that way.

There was also the 45 minute commute for MP to and from a job where he already spends his entire shift driving around town.

There were good and bad things about where we lived before, but the best, was our backyard. It was fully fenced and BIG.

Needless to say, with four pups it was something we were not looking forward to giving up when we moved.

We knew we weren't going to renew our lease at the end of the 12 months, so we honestly started looking for our new place in DECEMBER. Yes, you read that right. We started looking about 6 months ahead of time.

And we STILL found this place almost at the last second.

We had a long wish-list, but there were a few"musts" at the top of the list. I wanted to feel safe, be able to walk my dogs right out my front door, and I knew I wanted to shorten the commute for MP...

But, we also knew that finding a place that allowed all of our pups was our biggest challenge, so we (and by we I primarily mean me) started looking really early and kind of took on the mindset that we would take what we could get as long as they let us keep everyone together.

And then, after some searching online, I happened to find the only apartment company that allowed all of our dogs, which also happened to be the only one in our entire city that has fenced in back yards.

The "complex" is really about 40 acres of matching duplexes. We have two pools, a dog park, and so much more.

The area is so quiet, everyone has a background check to live here, EVERYONE has dogs,

I am sleeping so much better at night knowing how safe we are here.

And...

O, my goodness y'all.

Our yard... Is huge.

And we have a covered patio.

It's an oasis.

MP and I are technically paying an extra $100 a month for patio and the larger yard, and it will be the best $1200 spent at the end of our year lease, I can guarantee that.

I talked a little about it here, and as soon as we moved in we knew that we wanted to spend a lot of our time outside, taking advantage of the space.

Before we moved we did a little research and realized very quickly that the patio set we wanted was way out of our budget right now. There is always the chance that we will find a great deal, but for now we are resigned to the fact that we can't make that big of a purchase right now.

I told my parents about this, and when my mom came to visit a few weeks after we moved in, she brought with her lots of goodies.

She kept pulling things out of her trunk, and I was reminded of Hermione's magic bag in The Deathly Hallows.

Two of the things she pulled out were patio chairs that our family had used since I was a child.

My parents had since upgraded, but had always kept the old, white plastic set in the gazebo.

I am so thankful we did!

She also brought me a few cans of white paint to spruce them up a bit.

Amazing what a few coats of paint can do!

Now that we had the two chairs, we knew we would need a table of some sort.

Tada!

We flipped over a Tupperware bin that we had used for moving and painted it white.

The plastic wasn't the best at holding the paint, and it was a little hot that day so we had a few drips, but overall I am very happy with the way that it turned out.

My lovely momma also brought us the cushions, and I think they really tie the space together.