House Updates, Outdoor Furniture Ideas, and 35 Gorgeous Outdoor Pools

This might be the longest post I have ever written, and I am so glad to have time tonight and to reconnect with all of you.

I am opening my pool myself this year for the first time, which made me want to post about pools. I have this new commitment to learning how my house works. (For real, so stop laughing). I want to learn how to take care of the pool, how to fix the walls (correctly), how to change venting filters, how to use a caulk gun, etc. I have done many of those things before, but the key is I want to lean how to do them right and not risk making things worse every time I go to fix a problem. So I'm studying up, and learning that preparation and tools are everything.  And I guess practice, too.

Speaking of outdoors, I was in Lowes the other day. Well, I've actually been in Lowes every day as a part of my new goal to learn how to work my house (By the way, do you all know how many kinds of caulk there are!?! Way too many if you ask me). Anyway, I saw these pillows and thought they were nice. I am going to try to get the patio furniture out this weekend and then will reassess what pillows I might need, and I'm sure I'll need a few. Actually I think a few of these shots might be from Home Goods, but you get the idea:

        

I do know from experience that if you are going to buy outdoor items at Lowes, buy soon - it seems that they sell out every season before Memorial Day, at least in my experience. Which drives me absolutely crazy, but that's a rant for another day.

Oh, and I have an almost completed bathroom to show you! Here it is with paint - what a difference that makes:

I'm still waiting on the shower door and then I need a window shade and accessories. I usually use Smith & Noble for windows, but I recently learned that Blinds.com is a fraction of the cost, so I ordered samples there. Have any of you ever used them? I'm not a fan of the website so much, but for half price I can deal. I'm going to do a top down bottom up in either fabric (silver, silk maybe), or natural fiber. I want to use the top down feature to cover the view of the house in the back. It's definitely the least attractive view from our house because an older single woman lives alone there, and she can't really maintain the back of the home. But she's very sweet and doesn't complain about the teenagers being much too loud much too late at night in the summer, so it's all good.  

Moving on, I found this website the other day (Custom Cushions, here) that makes custom Sunbrella cushions. I have a long built in bench outside that I never got a pillow for, so I just ordered one here yesterday. They also do custom patio umbrellas and other bench, chaise, and throw pillows. It's a really fun website and not too expensive. How much fun would it be to design your own patio umbrellas!? I can't fully recommend them because I don't have the product yet, but I'll update as soon as I do.

Tonight we met my father and his wife for dinner to celebrate Ellie's birthday. It is a great restaurant, although dark and hard to get good photos in. But I wanted to share a few. Here is Ellie opening a dress from Beverly, and one of me with Dad:

 

And one of the teenager who desperately needs a haircut but refuses one just to spite his adoring mother. Maybe I'll tell him I like his hair long because it makes him look younger and makes his face look more like it did as a baby (it does). That should do it!

And one of Ellie modeling her new dress. Where oh where did the time go? (Oh, and she doesn't know it yet, but she will not be wearing that as a dress. Maybe as a tunic or beach cover up, but not alone).

Finally, for patio furniture, this is the best pricing I've seen in a long time. I've noticed that lighting prices are way down lately, too, but I don't really know why:

Ok, now onto the dream pools....

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