My first apartment was on the second-floor of a two-family home.
By student apartment standards, this place was exceptional-it had hardwood floors and rich stained trim, a walk-in pantry, and a porch on the front of the house.
Our furnishings were a collection of castoffs from my roommate's family and the previous tenants.
We gravitated toward the outside space, but patio furniture-that didn't exist.
Besides, aren't dining room chairs light enough to be carried outside? When we moved the next year, our porch shrunk, and our patio furniture did, too.
Milk crates were small and versatile; what was a chair yesterday was a table today.
But when it was time to move into the first apartment with my new husband, it was time to commit to patio furniture.
We took the plunge, and selected four aluminum folding chairs-the new kind, with vinyl tubes on the seats and backs, rather than the woven straps we used at Grandma's house.
We migrated to our second apartment, where we had both a front porch and a back yard.
The porch held the folding chairs, and the landlord's picnic table gave us patio furniture in the back yard.
A couple of years later, the folding chairs made their way into the moving truck, and when we arrived at our new apartment in Fort Lauderdale, we ate our first meal-pizza and beer--on our only patio furniture, those vinyl folding chairs.
I eventually ended up on my own in Fort Lauderdale, and lost custody of the folding chairs in the process.
No worries, I thought, since I had a life full of young friends from work.
We headed out on the town every weekend, and once in a while, a couple of roommates would throw a casual party in their condos.
It was at one of those parties I wandered out to a terrace devoid of patio furniture-just a dartboard.
I eventually married the party host, and we were both unencumbered by patio furniture.
Fast forward a few years, and we built our first home-one we designed and contracted ourselves.
It was an effort, but we made sure that the house would provide all the features we wanted-and that was a big pool, a screened-in deck, and a private porch off the master bedroom upstairs.
These outdoor spaces needed furnishings, and we picked up patio furniture here and there-a hammock for him the Christmas I was first pregnant (guess who used it most?), a hexagon-shaped picnic table that seated 12 in a pinch, and a big stack of plastic chairs to accommodate all the party guests we hosted at our barbecues.
We made a few more moves, and we updated our patio furniture for the most recent one.
I wanted a dining set that I would not have to be concerned about when we had those predictable afternoon thunderstorms, and the seats needed to be comfortable.
I found the perfect patio furniture one day-a dining table with an aluminum frame and an amber glass top.
The sling armchairs were comfortable, and their mesh seats let the rain run through.
We added accessories to this set-a matching bar for our parties, an outdoor lamp, and the well-loved wrought iron dinette set that didn't fit in our new breakfast nook.
We placed a few Adirondack chairs around the pool, and our deck, outfitted with all the right patio furniture, was complete.
Wherever I lived, it was important to me to enjoy outdoor living.
My patio furniture helped me do that.
By student apartment standards, this place was exceptional-it had hardwood floors and rich stained trim, a walk-in pantry, and a porch on the front of the house.
Our furnishings were a collection of castoffs from my roommate's family and the previous tenants.
We gravitated toward the outside space, but patio furniture-that didn't exist.
Besides, aren't dining room chairs light enough to be carried outside? When we moved the next year, our porch shrunk, and our patio furniture did, too.
Milk crates were small and versatile; what was a chair yesterday was a table today.
But when it was time to move into the first apartment with my new husband, it was time to commit to patio furniture.
We took the plunge, and selected four aluminum folding chairs-the new kind, with vinyl tubes on the seats and backs, rather than the woven straps we used at Grandma's house.
We migrated to our second apartment, where we had both a front porch and a back yard.
The porch held the folding chairs, and the landlord's picnic table gave us patio furniture in the back yard.
A couple of years later, the folding chairs made their way into the moving truck, and when we arrived at our new apartment in Fort Lauderdale, we ate our first meal-pizza and beer--on our only patio furniture, those vinyl folding chairs.
I eventually ended up on my own in Fort Lauderdale, and lost custody of the folding chairs in the process.
No worries, I thought, since I had a life full of young friends from work.
We headed out on the town every weekend, and once in a while, a couple of roommates would throw a casual party in their condos.
It was at one of those parties I wandered out to a terrace devoid of patio furniture-just a dartboard.
I eventually married the party host, and we were both unencumbered by patio furniture.
Fast forward a few years, and we built our first home-one we designed and contracted ourselves.
It was an effort, but we made sure that the house would provide all the features we wanted-and that was a big pool, a screened-in deck, and a private porch off the master bedroom upstairs.
These outdoor spaces needed furnishings, and we picked up patio furniture here and there-a hammock for him the Christmas I was first pregnant (guess who used it most?), a hexagon-shaped picnic table that seated 12 in a pinch, and a big stack of plastic chairs to accommodate all the party guests we hosted at our barbecues.
We made a few more moves, and we updated our patio furniture for the most recent one.
I wanted a dining set that I would not have to be concerned about when we had those predictable afternoon thunderstorms, and the seats needed to be comfortable.
I found the perfect patio furniture one day-a dining table with an aluminum frame and an amber glass top.
The sling armchairs were comfortable, and their mesh seats let the rain run through.
We added accessories to this set-a matching bar for our parties, an outdoor lamp, and the well-loved wrought iron dinette set that didn't fit in our new breakfast nook.
We placed a few Adirondack chairs around the pool, and our deck, outfitted with all the right patio furniture, was complete.
Wherever I lived, it was important to me to enjoy outdoor living.
My patio furniture helped me do that.
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