A young Scottish woman has managed to save 6,000 pounds (approx. US$7,900) by transforming her dull garden into an outdoor haven that is fitted with a hot tub, fire pit, and lounge area.
Alex Lawson, 26, from Aberdeen, Scotland, had spent months transforming the garden of her three-bed terraced house into an outdoor living space.
“I moved in September 2019 and the garden was put on the back burner,” Alex said. “Before moving in, I had never even put up shelves let alone tackled a huge garden project.”
After receiving quotes for 11,000 pounds (US$14,500), Alex decided to take matters into her own hands and set to work on revamping the garden, with it costing just 5,000 pounds (US$6,500) in total.
Alex, an engineer, started working on the project during the first lockdown in May 2020 and continued working on it for over a year, adding some extra bits.
“I’m a very independent person and hard-working so I knew I wanted to attempt to do it myself and it paid off,” Alex said.
Alex, a DIY and interiors blogger, lives mainly by herself, thus she did the majority of the renovation by herself.
A finalist on Scotland’s Christmas Home of the Year kept her other costs down by finding bargains on Facebook Marketplace. She also picked up her outdoor furniture and accessories from stores including Aldi, Home Bargains, Amazon, Asda, and B&Q.
“Now, there’s a small bar with a champagne bucket and a table I found on Facebook Marketplace, a pergola with a hot tub from The Range, a seating area with a fire pit from Amazon, and a canopy and a lot of lights and decorative pieces,” she said. “I waited for offers to come in and got the best deals for things; the hot tub was £400 and the fire pit was £250 .”
Alex learned most of her DIY skills from watching tutorials on YouTube and getting inspiration from Pinterest and Instagram.
“Lockdown meant I was able to work from home so could get more done and had more free time at the weekends,” Alex said.
The crafty DIYer, who helped her dad with his projects when she was young, said this is the first time she tackled a DIY project all by herself.
