A man built an entire café for his family in their backyard, complete with a chalkboard drinks menu

• Ed Astrid, a 53-year-old contractor from Orange County, California, built himself a fully-functioning coffee shop.
• La Vida, located in his backyard, is decorated with thrifted items and features a chalkboard menu with personalized drinks named after family members.
• Astrid worked on the project on weekends for three months, and used only leftover materials from other construction jobs.

Ed Astrid put everyone's DIY quarantine projects to shame when he built himself a private coffee shop.

The 53-year-old contractor from Orange County, California, always dreamt of owning his own café, his daughter Julianna told Insider in an email, and loves scouring Pinterest and Instagram for tiny homes and small structures.

He recently combined those two passions with a small coffee shop he built in his own backyard.

"One day, he told us 'I think I'm gonna build a coffee shop in the backyard,' and we all just kinda laughed because it was so random," Julianna said. "Three months later, this thing was built!"

Ed used only repurposed materials left over from other construction jobs, and chipped away at his side project on weekends, according to Julianna.

"Since this was just a project he did for fun, he wasn't in any rush to finish. Honestly, it will probably never be completely done because he spends so much time in his new little creation and likes to change things around periodically," Julianna said, adding that Ed keeps rearranging furniture and buying things at thrift stores to decorate the place with.

The 120-square-foot coffee shop, named La Vida, has room for two outside and fits six people inside.

It's fully decked out with a small fireplace, TV, Bluetooth speakers, bookshelf, and chessboard, as well as a wood counter, mini-fridge, coffee maker, and pastry display.

Of course, no coffee shop is complete without a chalkboard menu: La Vida's features personalized drinks named after Ed's family members.

Ed built the café as a place to unwind, hang with his family, and enjoy a good cup of coffee, according to his daughter.

Julianna said that he named the café La Vida (The Life) to represent "that this is the good life! Working on his craft and being able to create something for him and his family to enjoy makes him very happy."

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