Dreaming of greener pastures

We recently renovated out 75 year old wooden cottage, turning it into a double storey wooden cottage with more space and less 70s decor. The reno was very successful and we LOVE our new house with it's spare bedroom, home office, even floors, absolutely no Mission Brown paint, and lack of damp on the ceiling.

However, we ran out of oomph when it came to tackling the hideous backyard. It has the most awful reddish brown tiles surrounding a kidney shaped pool and was obviously the height of landscaping design in the early 80s, but is not my idea of a tranquil oasis.

The time has come to beat it into shape, and in my usual style I have begun to obsess about the design and details, turning endlessly to the Internet to inspire me. The Internet is like catnip to obsessives like myself who have to get all of the details about things .. I can't help it!

We need to replace the pool because it is starting to pull away from the surrounding paving and is just plain ugly. So pool obsessing has been high on my list. And I am haunted by the idea of having a sunken outdoor lounge room near the pool which is enclosed on three sides. I saw one once on a gardening show and I can't remember much more about it other than I loved it and aspire to one day have one. Of course it will be fully pimped with designer lounges and maybe even a fire pit and outdoor kitchen! Well, a person can dream.

We are on a large block so there's quite a lot of space to play with. It's my next project, and I love having a project :)

If I could walk out of my back door into something like this I'd be very happy - who wouldn't!