I built a lounge area, treehouse, and fire pit to upgrade our backyard, all for $25 — here's how

The new DIY hammock.José R. Mendoza

• Freelance writer José R. Mendoza and his wife, who is also a freelancer, had been planning on house-hunting in California when the pandemic hit.
• They decided to move in with their in-laws in Maine — and Mendoza wanted to create some of his dream DIY projects there.
• The first thing he did was set-up a hammock he bought in California, which was quick and easy.
• Next, he built a casita (playhouse) for his child, and he topped it off by redesigning the house's fire pit.

Right before the beginning of the pandemic, my wife and I were house hunting in San Diego for what would have been the place where we would settle and raise our family. I had all these ideas for home improvement projects that I would work on once we had our new place. The list included everything from building a playhouse and a swingset for our child to building a fire pit.

Then the pandemic hit. Along with many people across the globe, our livelihoods were affected. My wife and I are both freelancers, and we each lost projects and clients. At the same time, California issued a stay-at-home order, which meant that we could no longer physically look at houses.

So, we put our home-buying plans on pause. And, as a result, all of those projects I imagined working on in "our new place" were also on hold.

After a couple months of temporarily sheltering in place with family, we realized the pandemic and its effects would last longer than we originally thought and we needed to settle somewhere more permanent. So as the restrictions started to ease in California, we made the decision to leave and move in with my in-laws in Maine, where we have now been living for over two months.

Since the first weekend we arrived, I started to work on the things that I wanted to do in our own "place." Thankfully, my in-laws have plenty of space and have allowed me to work on my DIY projects that everyone benefits from.