Weekend Project: Pergola - Day 2

No, it did not take us two months to finish the pergola.  The summer has absolutely flown by!  Between the usual summer craziness and a packed calendar of events at work there was just no time for blogging.

So with no further ado, here is the update and reveal of project: pergola.

We started off the day with, you guessed it, more sanding and painting.  Hurray!

Important public service announcement:  do not EVER try to paint lattice with a brush.  I seriously wasted 4 hours of my life on day one trying to get into every nook and cranny with a paint brush.  And the end result looked terrible!  The stain inevitably dripped through to the other side and created big dark globs.  It was so awful in fact that we didn't even use that piece of lattice.

So I wised up and called several places to find out how much they charge to rent a paint sprayer.  While at Home Depot (our fifth trip, mind you) the man at the rental center convinced me that the commercial paint sprayers (3000 psi) that they rent would be a bit overkill for our project.  He advised that I buy a cheap sprayer in the paint section.  So I picked up a Wagner (1700 psi) for $68 - which was just slightly more than it would have cost to rent one.  Score!

Hour 12,867 of staining.

Then it was time to put all the pieces together, and voilà!  Ain't it purdy?

And it's even better now that we have some hanging plants and lights.  We love having candlelight dinners outside (as long as the pesky mosquitoes don't drop in for a visit).

It ended up costing us slightly more than we had hoped, but it was still only 1/3 the cost of hiring someone to build it for us.  Can't beat that!

Weekend Project: Pergola - Day 1

We have been saving our credit card points for a rainy day project....or in our case, a sunny day project.  So after years of socking away the points we decided to cash in and build ourselves a pergola.

Pergolas.  Mike has always wanted one.  Plus it's just a fun word to say.

Let me preface this by saying Mike and I may be creative and motivated but we are a far cry from being "handy".  The key to this successful endeavor was recruiting the right friends to help us.  And that we did.  

Day one of the pergola extravaganza began at 8:30am.

The first order of business was to dig really, really deep holes for the posts.  Thankfully with the help of some fellas with very large biceps we busted through these in no time.

Mike and the Colonel mixed the cement by hand.
Tough work.

Sanding and staining.  Hour 1.

Work hard.  Play hard.

With so many people coming and going the gate was left open a couple of times.  Ringo is normally pretty good about staying close but he was clearly bored by us and he slinked away without being noticed for who knows how long.  We found him at his friend Reilly's house scratching at the door - "Can Reilly come out and play?"

The four main posts were set and stained by 4pm.  Nice!

Hour 5 of staining.   The sun is now beginning to set.  Fumes going to the brain....

And 11.5 hours later, day one concluded.   

Bed. Is. Calling.

Weekend Project: Herbs and Ivy

Traditionally Mike and I try to get one home project done each weekend.  Lately this has consisted primarily of yard work.  Memorial Day weekend we cleaned out the garage (finally!), I planted grass seed in dead places in our yard, and Mike planted hostas.  The goal for this past weekend was to plant indoor herbs and grow some ivy up our fence.

I wouldn't exactly say that I have a green thumb.  I can hardly believe that any of our plants survived 2009 in my incapable hands while Mike was deployed to Iraq.  But miraculously two of them endured.  Granted these varieties are supposedly impossible to kill - but I wouldn't put it past me.  So even though this weekend's project was not difficult - the challenge lies ahead......keep them alive!

Step 1: Trip to Bachmans

We have a chain link fence in a small city lot - which isn't exactly the prettiest thing to look at while grilling out on a Sunday evening.  Installing a wood privacy fence is out of the budget so we thought it would be better to grow vines along the chain link.   We chose an Engelman Ivy because it grows aggressively, it turns a lovely burgundy color in the fall, and it was one of the more affordable options.  We only bought four to start off with.  We want to make sure we can handle it before we invest in doing the whole yard!

Step 2: Select plants

With the Engelman Ivy in hand it was time to select the herbs.  I was bummed to learn that cilantro turns yellow quite quickly.  So I settled for mint, parsley and basil.

Step 3: Play in the dirt

Mulch of choice: Cocoa Shells.  

Mmmmmm....smells like chocolate.

Tools: herbs, work gloves, potting soil and pot(s) 

I was stoked to find this set of pots for the reasonable price of $12.99 at Bachmans.  It saved me a trip to Ikea!

Step 4: Stand back and admire your work

 

High five from the Ring-dog for a job well done.

Step 5: Use herbs to make celebratory meal of caprese salad and mojitos.  Ok this hasn't happened yet.  So Step 5 at the moment is water plants every day and pray to God that they survive the Lotzers.