If you follow me on Facebook, then you’ve already heard my tale of Easter-weekend woe. For the rest of you, let me set the scene. It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday, not a cloud in the sky. I had just cleaned the deck furniture, opened the umbrella, and stirred up a pitcher of lemonade so I could sit outside and enjoy the day.

Before I could get there, though, a gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew all of the trees sideways. I heard a crash and thought one of the trees had landed on the deck. But when I looked outside, this is what I saw. The wind had sucked the umbrella right out of its weighted base, shattering the glass table.

The first thing I said to my husband was, “I just cleaned that!” As if the worst part of the whole thing was that all my scrub work was for nothing. (He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Well, we’ll be sweeping up CLEAN glass, then.”)

The second thing I said was, “Don’t touch anything. I have to take a picture for my blog!”

Later that day I found this note from my 7-year old taped to my computer screen:

It says, “Sorry about the table. But you still have the chairs. Right? Love you! xox Lily.” So sweet.

I already miss my table. I miss the umbrella’s shade. But now I have a dilemma. Do I go out and replace them? I like this fresh-looking Atrium set at Crate & Barrel:

But I’m torn.

See, I’ve got this “Dream Board” in my office (Inspiration Board? Things I Want So Bad It Hurts Board? Whatever you want to call it.) And there’s a definite theme to the rooms that are pinned to it right now:

I can’t get my mind off these pretty screened porches.

What I really want to do is screen our deck in and forget about getting another table and umbrella altogether. I’ve had the porch furniture from our last house sitting in storage since we moved here and it would be nice to bring it back out again.

Maybe that gust of wind was a sign that I’m supposed to finally get that porch I want? Okay, so it’s sort of a pie-in-the-sky fantasy I’m having at the moment, but I feel like dreaming big. Why not?

Is there anything big that you dream of having for your house?

There is a great product on the market we use at Archadeck of Charlotte to convert a screen porch into a sunroom or make a porch into a hybrid screen porch/ sunroom. We can design a screen porch and install a retractable window system that will give you a four-season room and the ability by simply sliding the window system back down back to a screen in patio or porch. This product is much more affordable than conventional windows and is very functional. For additional information you can comment on this blog or visit our web site at http://www.archadeckofcharlotte.com or http://www.charlotte.archadeck.com