Pergola - Part Deux

Greetings All,

I have cracked my wife's login once again to bring you this special picture. Grace and I were hanging out in the living room. I was getting a little sore having her hang onto my thumbs while she stood, so I propped her up against the ottoman. She has been perching against this ottoman for a few days now. It is her favorite "perch". Especially if a few of her toys are tossed into the middle. She will maneuver (not really walk) around the edge, trying to get a better reach of her toys.
But anyway. The title of this post is "The Pergola, Part Deux". And that is your french lesson for the day. On with the story!

We left off with the inspector doing his thing with the holes, and giving us a passing grade. We were ecstatic. It was the Friday before memorial day weekend, we had five and a half big holes in the ground, and governmental permission to build the pergola. Whee!

I went to work that friday morning, looking forward to taking a half-day off and starting the long weekend early. When I got home, the guests hadn't arrived yet, and Lana was in a tizzy trying to get the house "just-so".

We finished prepping the house, and getting things ready for our guests. Lana kept working in the house while I went out to work out the final locations for the post holes. In our frenzy the night before, we hadn't worried too much about the location of the holes. We both kept working until the Kiser and Wampole clan arrived.

Adam helped us out by acting as a depth-gauge. Notice the loose string next to him? We were using those to square out the location of the posts. The "high-precision" thing behind his head is a substitute batting board. They "worked", but didn't tolerate people pulling on the lines (they collapsed) nor were they easy to adjust.


That evening, we expanded the existing holes, and worked on cutting through the concrete. Glen and Mike helped out a lot by starting to rip through the pile of 2x4 lumber to make the large shaders. It was dusty work and the circuit breaker kept tripping, but they got a good head start on it.

The next morning my Mom and Dad arrived. There was a lot of story-swapping, and general good times. Grace had a blast hanging out with Grandma Sue, and Grandpa Steve. But, we had to get to work. The pergola wasn't going to build itself. Dad and I went out back, and started working on breaking through the concrete hole. Mike was very interested in doing some demolition as a break from working the table-saw, so we handed him a sledgehammer and a concrete drill. He had fun, and we broke through. The concrete hole was very easy to expand, once we punched through.

The work-site was a mess, but we were making progress. We had the concrete hole dug and shaped, and the rest were in a better location. Then the last of the cavalry arrived. My Gary! He brought his big truck full of tools, an awesome radial-arm saw on a portable trolley, and a beautiful oak porch swing. With his help, (and some more of his handy tools) we were able to make some sturdy batting boards, and work out the final locations for the poles. It was hot, but we were making good progress. We all chugged gallons of icy cold delicious water (Thank you ladies!), and kept on building.


It wasn't long before the holes were perfect, and we were ready for concrete. The inspector had insisted on us laying down a shallow flat layer of concrete at the bottom of each hole. So, we did. Waiting on it to cure gave us another perfect excuse to take a lunch break.

The ladies had been busy too. We weren't the only ones working our collective butts off. Mom was keeping busy supplying us with lots of cold, delicious, sweat-fighting water. Lana was busy with Grace, and letting everyone know where everything was hidden, and Amy and Betty cooked meals for fifty. Oh, and do you see many kids in these pictures? I believe Amy stayed busy keeping the boys out of harm's way.

We let the concrete cure and took a break to partake in the feast. After lunch, we started setting the posts. It wasn't easy shifting and maneuvering the fourteen foot tall posts into position. They were heavy! But we nudged them into place, and anchored them. With three stout fellas doing the work, it went quickly. Unfortunately, we had to do this work during the hottest part of the day. We had to take quite a few water breaks. See all the Bojangles cups? All water.

But, we got it done. And a lot quicker than I thought it would go.

Once the posts were all up, we had to take yet another break to let the concrete cure. More cold water, and more snacky foods. We also took the time to go into the garage to see how Mike and Glen were doing with the shaders. They had made quite a bit of progress. They had a huge pile stacked up in there, ready to go. Once we had the beams mounted to the posts, installing the shaders would go quickly.

Well, water break is over, back to work!

We used a circular saw set at a specific depth to cut the shoulders out of the posts. It was a job that almost guaranteed a bit of sawdust in your mouth. But it was the best way to rough out the joint. Once the wood was weakened by the saw, a hammer cleared a majority of the scrap, and a chisel did the clean-up.

Once all of the gaps were cleared out, we were able to hang the main beams: dual 2x10 boards. They were heavy, and cumbersome to work with. But once we man-handled them up to their gaps, the work went quickly. We held them in place with clamps and some long screws, and we were done for the day. Just in time too - we were all running out of steam.


But it looked good. At this point, we could have switched gears and made a deck up there. It was that solid.
We ended the day on a good note. The dirty part was complete. Everything from this point out was straight forward carpentry. No more mud, no more concrete, no more wet grass. We called it a night.

The next day - sunday, we were ready to turn this into a pergola. The rafters were 2x6 pieces that stretched from beam to beam. The first one was a challenge to install, but once we figured out the best length, and best way to get them into position, the work went quickly. At this point, we were glad that Glen and Mike had made so much progress making shaders. As the rafters were installed, we were able to install the shaders between them as we went along. Since they had built them early, we were able to show a lot of progress very quickly.

Unfortunately, we started running out of time. Even though it was Memorial day weekend (Monday off), people had to leave. Prior engagements, and such. That was okay. We loved having the help, and many hands definitely made light work.

My Dad and I stayed out late on Sunday night, putting up as many rafters as we could. But soon, even he had to leave. We made a lot of progress over the Memorial day weekend, but we weren't quite there yet.

I was able to do a few of the custom rafters by myself, using pre-cut pieces. I made a lot of progress, but at that rate, it was going to take me weeks to finish.

Several weeks later, Mike and Amy came by again. We picked up another load of lumber from Lowe's, and started making shaders again. We ripped through another bundle of 2x4's, and a lot of the left over scrap pieces. And made the exact number of pieces necessary to complete the pergola. We mounted more of the shaders, but ran out of time again. But - left me with enough pieces to completely finish the project!

I've lost track of how much time and energy has been spent on this pergola. My financial report says that we only spent about $2200 on the pergola - including the food from Memorial Day weekend. The tax statement says that it will increase the property value by $8000. But now that it is complete, and we can walk around in it's cool shade, it feels like a million dollar extension to our home.


Lana and I have had dinner a few times outside, and even watched the sunset a time or two. It is an amazing addition to our home, and I think of the people who helped build it every time I go out to admire it.

But, one thing remained. We needed a christening party! Or Two!

We had the first one a few weeks ago, when the Kiser clan came out for part of their summer vacation. It was hot, it was sunny, but we were determined to have dinner under the pergola. We had a good time, and the family finally got to see what it was supposed to look like. I got to play on the grill and cook a few items, and we had dinner in the shade.

The second christening party happened today. I had invited a few people (and their families) from work to come out for a lunch-time barbecue under the Pergola. They had heard me talk about it for months, and a few of them were excited enough to come see it. The kids played under it and out in the yard, the adults chatted and partied under it, and I cooked under it. Everyone commented about how big it was, and how stout it was. One of them asked if it would be alright to lean against one of the poles. He didn't want to push it down. The party (and the Pergola) was a success. The food was good, the company was good, and I think everyone had a good time.

Pergola's are awesome!

Until next time,
-Matt