THAT’S A PUB GARDEN!

Yes, they’re stuck at home. But with their own bar in the back yard, it could be worse...

TIPPLES . . . AND A PIZZA OVEN

MAKE-UP artist Lisa Valencia, 50, her photographer husband John, 52, and their sons Oscar, 27, Zak, 22, and Jonah, 20, live in Highams Park, East London. Lisa says: AS ANYONE with adult children — furloughed from work but living at home — will understand: a garden is like another room of the house. That’s probably why we have spent a large part of our lockdown days, and evenings, in our garden bar.

Luckily ours also has a pizza oven which we have used a lot — I even finished off our Easter roast lamb in it — and we’ll definitely be here this week when both Jonah and Oscar celebrate their birthdays.

And because we can’t get to the supermarket the way we used to, we’ve been relying on local shops and delis, which means tasty treats like goat’s cheese for our pizzas.

I haven’t really drunk more during lockdown but I do like to video chat with my family with a glass of rosé in

the garden! We built the bar a couple of years ago when an extension completely destroyed our back garden, forcing us to redesign it.

The first and most expensive purchase was the wood-fired pizza oven (around £1,200), which John then built the bar around. We wanted an industrial feel, so the base of the counter is made from gabion — heavy duty wire cages — filled with rocks that cost us around £300. The counter top is a piece of marble (costing around £400). The stools were £250 each.

The bar has an electrical supply, so we have lights and a working sound system. I try not to compare what we are doing now with last year but there have been upsides to the lockdown.

It’s lovely having all five of us round the table each night, whereas before we’d all be so busy we’d often eat out or at different times. I definitely enjoy making the table look attractive with candles and flowers. In these strange times I think we all need a little lift.