Also this past weekend, my family drove here to help my Better Half and I construct a pergola for our backyard. We began work around 10am on Saturday and worked until around 9pm. We were up again at 8am and worked until about 7pm today. It was a lot of hard work and everyone ended the days hot, tired and dirty, but I think we did a great job and I am completely geeked about this new focal point in the garden.
Things I did to help prepare for the project:
- agonized over cedar vs. treated lumber
- called the city to check if I needed a building permit
- asked how far the structure had to be from the property lines
- marked the 10'x10' footprint with stakes and twine to decide on location
- looked up the frost line for the area
- called MISS DIG to have the utility lines marked
- ordered all lumber and hardware and had it delivered before my help arrived
- bought tons of food and beverages for my workers
- purchased new blades for the jigsaw and sandpaper for the sander
- printed out multiple copies of the blueprints/plans
- patience, patience, patience
Things I learned (aka. should have done):
- hot, sunny weather calls for sunscreen
- read, reread, and read once more the plans and make sure they are thoroughly understood
- makes notes of errors in the plan
- templates for arches can be redrawn in Illustrator, scaled up to size and printed ahead of time
- a tweak in one part of the plans often leads to additional tweaks
- check over the lumber order on delivery to make sure it is correct
- make sure the new blades actually fit the jigsaw and are long enough for the project
- even more patience
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment