O is for Oasis

We’ve been working on our backyard on and off for three years. Part of the delay was the pandemic, of course, but there has also been triple digit temperatures, lack of time, laziness and procrastination.

Hey–at least I’m honest!

In the background, you can see the ramada that we completed about 18 months ago. It was a complete re-build from one almost identical that had weathered and attracted bees in lots of holes.

Excluding the wrought-iron fixes, we did it all ourselves. I should probably say Snake did it all with some minor help from a couple of us. He did all of the engineering, estimating and most of the work.

The top holds the solar panels for our pool. That was the original intent by the people who built it a long time ago and we kept it mostly the same except for removing the changing room that was on the far left side of the structure. It was never used–we have a bathroom right inside the back door–and it did nothing but attract bugs. So out it went.

The next step in the backyard renovation, excluding removing dead plants and horrible creosote that I hate and the movement of our gas meter, was to be this structure. It was planned to be the center of the yard and mirror the one by the pool. We had planned to build this one as well, but the pandemic has changed time availability substantially for Snake and we started looking for other options to build his vision. Well, my vision that he planned and tweaked and modified to be exactly what I wanted.

We found a guy who did repairs that we needed on the house and garage. Desert sun and wind and rain had done a number on some of the siding and it needed to be replaced. He did a great job on those so Snake showed him the plans and he jumped at the chance to build it.

What you see is one man’s work that took two weeks with the structure and the leveling and the installation of pavers. Yes, we still need to have electrical pulled there so we can have the lights and fan that we want installed. And a firepit table is on the list of things to buy. But our furniture that has lived squished under the old ramada because I bought it on clearance two years ago fits perfectly.

It is a perfect way to start some outside relaxing in 2021….