Porch Swings

Ok, I can't resist the temptation of decorating before the deck's even finished.  Dustin wants a porch swing, but given that this is cedar, I'm not certain it would hold up to the stresses of a swing.  That and I really don't want to start reinforcing this thing after it's already put together.  Here's a really nice glider I'm hoping to talk him into (gee, I hope he's not reading this.)  For the price, we'd be hard pressed to build it for the price they're selling it.  Of course, I'd over engineer it and it would last longer and hold up better if I built it...but hey, we'll be sick of it in a year and want something else anyway.

The Deck, Part Trois

It's been a while since I posted an update to the deck. This is mostly because it took over two weeks just to prep the boards and posts that it will take to complete the pergola. One of the "This Old House" guys once said that it 90% of the job is prep work. After that, it's easy. He wasn't exaggerating, at least about the prep work. Well, without further ado, here's our current progress.

The first thing we had to do was cut, sand, and stain the boards and posts that would be used for the pergola. This took the longest of all the tasks.

Next, we assembled the "ladders" that will serve as the roof of the pergola. Each of these runs long-ways. This is half of the "ladders" that will be used.

Once the ladders were assembled we put the posts into place. This took three people. I first tried to do it the "easy" way by nailing 2x4's to the post and then pushing them up a little at a time. This approach failed quickly and miserably. Dustin (being the people person) went next door and got our neighbor to help. I'm sure glad he did. Otherwise, I'd still be out there trying to raise this thing by myself.

After some grunt work, we raised all six posts and put the cross-members in place. I'm sure they have another name, but "cross-member" works for me.

We're over half way there! It's certainly been a challenge and it's taken far more effort and time than I had anticipated, but it's given me something to do while Dustin's at work and I've lost some weight and bulked up in the process. I even have a tan for the first time in about ten years. With any luck, we'll have the "ladders" up and support pieces in place by this time next week. After that comes the stairs, railings, skirting and finally DECORATING!