Back yard on a budget

Now that The House of Goodwill is just about ready to rent, I'll be posting some finished pics of the house for a while.

Today, a few of the patio area in the back patio area:

This little area is below the upper deck; not pictured (but to the right) is the outdoor grill.

I bought the two lounge chairs at an estate sale for $95 each.

They were in great shape, just dirty, so I took the covers off the cushions and threw them in the washing machine.  Now the lounge chairs are like brand new.

My guess?  That they would have been over $500 (or more) to buy new; instead of $190 for both.

The "grilling chair" on the right (where my husband likes to sit and drink beer while he's grilling) is my $19 paint-over project from a previous post.

The outdoor rug was about $50 from Wal-Mart.

Here is the patio to the left of the lounge chairs.

I can't remember how much I paid for these lightweight aluminum chairs (no more than $100 at most for both), but they're convenient to move around (near the firepit or wherever).

I collected the kids toys for free when I had my foster kids; I decided to leave them at the house for guests with small children.

Here's the grill; I meant to do a whole post on this but never did.

Our neighbors had this out on the street, they were throwing it away because someone had given it to them and it didn't work.

My husband saw it and was so excited to fix it up!

He ordered some parts online for just over $100.  (Ignitors?  Something like that...)

He took the grill apart, cleaned it, put in the new parts and voila!  A great grill for just over $100.

(The cover for it probably cost half the price of the grill...)

And finally, the firepit, another free neighbor cast off.

I was sitting at the computer one day, searching craigslist for items I needed for the house, when I saw my neighbor post this firepit as a "curb alert" on the next door app.

I immediately stopped what I was doing and ran to her house to pick it up.

It is still in good shape, it just had some rust.  (She was upgrading to a bigger, fancier firepit and giving this one away.)

I had my son sand it and paint it with paint for high temperatures.

Now it looks shiny, new and it's just perfect.

We even had time to enjoy it in the back yard a couple of times before we left.

This post reminds me of how and why I love thrifting and purchasing things secondhand.  For one thing, I try to live by the mantra of "reduce, reuse, recycle" and make as little waste as possible.  I never fail to be astonished at what people throw out in the garbage that is still totally usable.  I try to avoid being wasteful.

This whole patio area was put together for less than $400.  It could easily have cost upward of $2000 (on the lower end), had I just bought a bunch of new stuff.

The other reason?  It's just fun trying to create something beautiful out of trash and people's castoffs.  How can I get what I want and pay as little as possible to get it?  That's always the game!  It's a fun challenge to figure out how to do it.  And really, that is what I love the most.  

(That is, aside from the leftover money I've saved that I can use for something else I want to do.)

Looking at all these pics makes me want to start a new project.  I wonder what it will be?