Way back when we made our road trip on the Alcan, we hauled back an outdoor umbrella we found at a Portland Goodwill for $12.99.  One of the arms was broken, but the hubs assured me he could fix it, so I couldn’t pass it up at that price.  It hid out in the shed for a while, but now that the deck furniture is in place we were ready for a little shade.

The hubs used a left over piece of molding we had laying around to make it operational again.  I plan to eventually paint it to match the rest of the framework, but it’s not super noticeable so it’s not a high priority.

I picked up a weighted base at Pier 1 with reward points so it was free as well.  It took a few tries to find the right size pipe to join the umbrella and base, but the winner ended up being just $12 and the one that didn’t work out will be used for another project, so it’s not a loss.  I plan to paint the pipe to match the base, but again, not a huge priority since it’s the end of the season.

So the grand total for the umbrella and base was just $24.99.  That’s pretty minimal compared to $70+ for umbrellas in the retail catalogs plus another $70-150 for a weighted base.  Now we’re living the “fancy” life for a bargain price! 🙂