Mother's Day & the Deck

Sounds like the title of a novel, right?  Well... a novel in photos anyway.  I know you were all anxious to see the new outdoor furniture, but you'll have to bear with me while I put it all in perspective for you.

First up, on Wednesday these arrived:

complete with note saying Happy Mother's Day a few days early - from Jay & the girls.  It was a mixed bouquet of Iris and Lily.  Most of the Iris bloomed in the first two days, but the Lilies didn't come out until later.

Here's a yummy close up of the Iris:























And of the Lily:

I haven't been able to breathe well in several days.  Now I know why - look at the pollen just sitting on that flower petal!  I didn't see it until I was editing the photos today!

Fast-forward to Friday. Jay had off and we decided to go out looking for new outdoor furniture.  Before we get into what we found, you have to understand what we are trying to replace:

A set of four resin adirondack chairs.  If you live in a climate that has four true seasons, you understand that after a couple years of exposure to excessive sun, heat, humidity, followed by rain, then snow, riduculous cold, etc. these chairs start to disintegrate. Literally. That white stuff on the arm rests? Disintegrating resin. Ick.

And this 8 piece dining set (table, 6 chairs, umbrella).  I know it doesn't look so bad in this photo, but what you can't see is this:

The set is rapidly rusting out - it is cheap steel with a thin powder coat and that is what happens.  The rust has run down into the fabric of the chairs creating ugly yellow/brown stains. Not enticing.  There were also 2 cheap fold-up chaise loungers that the girls used for sunbathing. Gone. Rusted to death. May they rest in peace.  Actually, we put the 4 resin chairs and the chaise chairs out for bulk trash and someone picked them up before the trash truck came.  Hopefully they will find a new home other than a landfill!

We went and looked at several stores (Home Depot, Lowes, JCPenney, Sears) and found a few things that peaked our interest, but nothing that screamed "buy me!" ... until we got to Kohls. It was serendipity at its best. We went in to check out the anti-gravity chaise chairs that I had seen advertised for $59.99. (They were $69.99 at JCP in a boring tan canvas fabric).  We walked in just as the "power hours" sale was starting (no, I hadn't planned that).  So the chaise chairs were on sale for $53.99.  Plus I had a 15% off coupon! Yeah, the more you know, the more you Kohls!  They had the chair I was looking for - but only ONE left - the floor model. A very helpful sales woman named Ellen called another local store and located a second for us.  So we came home with these two anti-gravity chaise chairs:

And two of these cute little slate tables:

Oh, and two of these wicker rockers:

Along with two red toss pillows (not pictured) to go with the rockers.  All for under $400!  When the "amount saved" circled in red at the bottom of my Kohls receipt was higher than what I had actually spent I was elated!  Now, even more impressive is that Jay & I rarely buy anything on the spot without discussing, hemming, and hawing for days. So going into the store and just saying to Ellen - yes, we'll take two of those and two of those and two of those... it was so darn much fun! Not only had we walked into a great sale, but we were totally in synch in terms of mindset dealing with the sale. Cool!!!

Since this is such a photo heavy post, I'm going to continue the story in another post.  Watch for the second installment!