Show us your outdoor spaces!

Hello all! How was your weekend? Great I hope!

Today we are continuing the Show Us Your House linky parties with a look at outdoor spaces. I’m really excited about this one! (I say that every month, I know.)

Last year our backyard underwent a HUGE redo – we built a large deck on our sloping backyard soon after moving in years ago, but other than that we hadn’t touched it.

We finished paying off $125K worth of debt early last year, and this was our gift to each other for doing so. And yes, we paid cash. :)

We had a patio put in, a bit of landscaping (I’ve added quite a bit more this summer which I’ll show you soon) and our big splurge was this baby:

These pics are from last fall, obviously. I love fall but I’m holding back on the pumpkins at least for a few more weeks months.

The patio and fireplace are truly a dream come true – I cannot express to you how lucky we feel every time we walk out there. We’ve realized this summer the oasis it really is – the trees that line the back of our yard provide a TON of shade on the patio, which is something we’ve never had out there!

We also had our deck restained (HUGE process), and added a gazebo we found on sale at Sears to offer more shade on the deck.

I had fun decorating the space last year:

The gazebo is AWESOME – we can go out at night and shut the sheers and it keeps it relatively bug-free:

Which is nice because mosquitoes LOVE ME.

This winter wasn’t as cold as usual, but dang, it was WINDY. The gazebo leans quite a bit now because of all that wind. It’s held up great otherwise, but everything just needs to be tightened up (which we just haven't gotten to yet this summer).

We have three different “rooms” on the deck, which is what we designed it for all those years ago when we had it built:

The gazebo is a cool, shady spot during the day, but it’s most fun at night:

We adore our backyard now, and have spent more time out there in the past nine months than we have in eight years. :)

Now it’s time to see your outdoor spaces! Anything goes – patios, decks, landscaping, DIY projects, I want to see it all!

I’d love a link back, especially if you’d like to be considered in a highlight post:

<div align="center"><a href="http://simplehomeinteriordesign.com/" title="Show Us Your House" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.homestoriesatoz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/image34.png" alt="Thrifty Decor Chick" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Here’s the schedule for the rest of the year! Half way in, can you believe it?

July (bathrooms), August (family rooms), September (basements/rec rooms), October (bedrooms, guest or master), November (foyers), December (mud/laundry rooms)

Link up your posts here!