Outdoor Oasis, Part II

It's no secret if you read this blog that it took me awhile to get used to our new neighborhood after our move to the suburbs a little over a year and a half ago. Part of that was because change has never been particularly easy for me, but what else is new? Mostly, I think the move was hard because of when it was.

We made our move when all of lower Manhattan and our new neighborhood were still dark from Hurricane Sandy, and a mere five days after we settled in it started to snow, and didn't stop until spring. 

It's no wonder that for the first few months I dreamed about staking a For Sale sign in the front yard and hightailing it back to the city.

But the seasons go round and winter didn't last forever and eventually spring came. The weather got warmer and people came out of their hibernation and started walking the streets of my neighborhood, and most importantly, we got to work on building what became our outdoor oasis. David built a new deck, we got a grill, and for the summer, we lived outside. We have barbecues with lots of friends, we ate all our meals on the deck, and spend long, lazy summer afternoons outside with books, snacks, and everything you need to make an outdoor home.

Well, this summer we stepped up our game. 

I think the pictures can do it better justice than I can with words, so I present to you, our outdoor living room, courtesy of David, who always seems to know exactly what we need before I even know that what we need exists in the world:

This is where I spent the entire weekend

When I got tired of reading I watched 5 episodes of The Good Wife
because David extended our wifi to reach the yard

Because it's so cool to lay on a couch outside

View of the back of the house

Still outside when the sun set