Our backyard is complete!! Before, it was lackluster, unusable, and dangerous. Now, it’s full of fruit trees, veggie beds, flowers, and spaces for play, dining, and lounging. It’s perfect!

On the back of our house we have a door that isn’t really a door - it goes absolutely nowhere. The door opens to drywall and framing lumber. We’re required to keep it, so I’ve devised a plan to make the most out of it.

I didn’t want to toss out my trusty childhood lawn chairs just because they were falling apart. So, I found a way to reinvent them to last another three decades, and add some colorful charm, too.

When we remodeled our primary bedroom a couple of years ago, we added beautiful outdoor seating to extend the space to our backyard. It’s been great! But, I’ll admit that I neglected doing a deep cleaning for two years. Mostly because it’s just so easy to care for outdoor furnishings in our climate. They sometimes get food spilled on them, and they do get rained on, but the San Diego sunshine often dries out the moisture and bleaches out the stains in a matter of days. Or so I thought.

There are very few things I love more than mature trees. Like, maybe only sleep, eating, and TV watching rank higher. My husband probably ranks below mature trees, and I’m sure he’s okay with that. Trees are the best and I love them and want everyone to plant at least 5 trees per person, right now. But - I cut one down. I’m sad about the loss, but glad about the future. I’m a bag of mixed emotions.