We are blessed to have a half-acre lot for our old ranch house, and we spend a lot of wonderful time in our yard. Our backyard is our very private place, where we have enjoyed a lot of family bonding time throughout our marriage. Our son had his first “swim” in our pool when he was just 3 weeks old, and he spent a lot of time in that swing set (at the left side of the picture above), and so did I, when I was a full-time mom and my husband was a 9-5 worker in an office. We have all enjoyed swimming together almost every California summer day through our 15 years of marriage. Our backyard, and especially the pool, is our private family oasis, setting for countless lovely experiences and memories.
Over time we have added furniture and items around the pool and in the yard, to suit it to our uses. We received a metal lounge chair (white metal with white umbrella on the right side in the picture above) from my father-in-law, and that was my favorite accessory around the pool. It’s a lovely place for me to sit and read, chat on the phone, drink coffee, tea, or wine, etc. (You can see my posts here, here, & here).
There was this vintage aluminum canoe my husband bought from a neighbor when our son joined the Scouts, and they get a lot of fun use from it, including in a park lake a couple miles from our house.
To improve our oasis, we just finished adding this gazebo to our backyard story — gifted by Backyard Discovery, which is headquartered in Kansas. This gazebo sure adds a lot of fun and character to our backyard life, and since it has been assembled, we have have been having a lot of fun with our family and friends under it, when we were blessed to enjoy the sunny and warm “transition” weather in L.A for a while. Besides shade from the sun, we just had our first big rain in many months, and discovered the gazebo keeps us perfectly dry, too.
So, today, please allow me to share more of the story about our latest backyard accessory: the Backyard Discovery gazebo. We got a pretty large one, 12-feet by 16-feet, which just covered a bricked area we have at one end of our swimming pool, exactly where we needed it.
1. The shipping is pretty simple. A few days after we confirmed our order, it came on a truck, 6 packages as above, and was delivered “street side,” or to be more exact, to one end of our driveway. But it was quick and easy for my husband by himself to move the 6 packages with a dolly to our backyard, where they would be opened and the assembly would take place.
2. The installation is totally DIYable. My husband and I assembled the gazebo almost entirely on our own, with some help from our 14-year old son — yes! Every piece of hardware we needed was included, including some useful tools (screwdriver bits, basically).My biggest tip is to read the instructions carefully (they are very clear, and have excellent explanatory drawings for every step) and understand them before beginning each step. Then follow the instructions, don’t cut corners.
My husband was really impressed that the pieces — wood and metal — were so precisely and carefully made. In the end, EVERY hole lined up where it was supposed to be, every screw and bolt went in without any struggles. A couple more tips: there are a lot of different screws, bolts, washers, and nuts, all in plastic bags, and looking back, I think it is a good idea to have a lot of containers (nothing special, even empty tin cans would do) to place them in once the bags are opened. It could be frustrating to lose some.
3. FYI, yes, I really, truly got involved in most of the assembly and installation work myself! I always wear working gloves when I can, and always use powerful hand cream. Even then, I broke a couple of my nails and my hands got a bit rough, but my hands healed and my nails are almost all grown back — it really wasn’t that bad. And I am just so HAPPY I have another new, different achievement in life, and one I can enjoy using every day!
4. We did hire a couple of workers at the end of the installation, which involved lifting roof panels on top of the gazebo frame. That lifting was too heavy for me (but I supervised!), but my husband and son did it with a couple handymen we know, and with three sets of strong arms, the roof went on pretty quickly and easily. Just be careful lifting the roof panels into place, safety first! I should point out that we decided to erect our gazebo immediately next to one end our swimming pool, so close that we had to be creative in lifting up the roof panel on that side — including using a couple tall ladders in the shallow end of the water — not a typical installation, and extra work, but we got it done and we have the gazebo exactly where we want it.
In conclusion: This gazebo adds so much fun and character to our backyard and pool side, and we are very happy with its high quality, as well. Just this week we had some big wind and rain storms in Los Angeles, and I am happy to report this gazebo is as strong as a rock. We will sure have a lot of fun with our new gazebo, and I think our four-footed friends will love it, too!
I would like to give a 5 stars rating to our gazebo brand: Backyard Discovery — very good quality products, and easy to install (in our case). They also have many other backyard sets available, like swing sets and playhouses. Right now, after summer, it’s a great time to buy for the holiday, maybe from the Big Guy for Christmas. If you are interested in checking them out and getting something for your backyard, here is a 15% off coupon code for you: HALLIEDAILY15 . (Active from 12 a.m. November 9, through Saturday, November 12, at 11:59pm.) If you have been thinking of something like this, now is a good time to do it.
Also here I am wearing Linda Farrow Sunglasses, Zara (old) boots, & dress is from here (The same fabric also comes in this style, all so beautiful.)
