Sept 1st 2010

I began assembling the five panels up tonight. My back was hurting and I was home alone, so I used temporary supports to hold everything in place.


I also used my metal vice to start bending the metal tie down straps. This is how they attach to the gazebo on the inside and outside. Now those bolts I put in make sense!



After four of the five panels were up, I snapped this picture with my iPhone. Looks good!

Aug 28th 2010

Without this little finger plane, I would have had a lot more challenges building this. This little Stanley saved my neck. Without it, my dado cuts would have been far more challenging to finish. Plus there is something profoundly satisfying with working with hand tools.

Aug 25th 2010

Update on the gazebo. Working on the fourth panel now. Slowly getting there!

Aug 18th 2010

First panel finally done. It's a lot more work than I anticipated.

Aug 14th 2010

Initial cutting done for the gazebo panels. Sorted by panel and arranged on the deck.

Aug 5th 2010

Does that look like $850 of cedar? It is. Dang lumber is expensive.

Aug 4th 2010

Today a few things happened - I had my second full day off from both jobs since Memorial day - that was nice. I snapped this picture of Lydia watering the fruit trees (if you look REAL close you can see our first red apple on the left!) - she is listening to Homer's Odyssey on her headphones.

And Jill had her eye exam. Looks like her eyesight is still good enough! So she keeps driving for a couple more years.

We bought a new bunk bed. I was originally going to build, but just don't have the time. Will pick up on Friday. I also got M.I.A.'s new album which I'm thrilled about :)

I finished staining the deck. Tomorrow I start the long gazebo process. I can only afford half the panel wood. The wood for the "walls" or panels of the gazebo will be between $800 and $850 it turns out. Cedar is EXPENSIVE! And that's with a 10% off coupon. Dang.

Aug 3rd 2010

I went through three sheets on the belt sander working on the table. I was covered in sawdust. I actually took this picture AFTER I had taken the leaf blower to myself and gotten most of it off. Then I stained the table.

August 2nd 2010

Today I used the hammer drill to finally attach most of the outlying lighter toned boards to the concrete blocks underneath. Then I put a coat of semi-transparent cedar-toned stain down. It's a lot of work! This picture was taken when I was half done. Tomorrow night, if it's dry enough, I'll put coat #2 on.

July 31st 2010

When I built the deck, I saved some scrap boards. I'm sure some of my neighbors wondered why I had a small stack of wood on my front porch, but I needed them to be outside but not get rained on, since I didn't waste any finish on it. I took those boards and drilled holes in them. Then laid them across the gaps and centered the anchor bolts with them. Poured the concrete underneath and so those scrap boards held the bolts at the proper height.

I also used a belt sander to round off the corners of the table. I found that my perfect little 45 degree angles caught peoples pants legs as they were sitting down. So round off they were - this is stage one. After Jill inspects it all, I'll put on finer sandpaper and finish it.


I also poured concrete in the center portion of the deck finally. I had gotten Jill some beads ( went with Christmas colors that also remind me of M&M's) and she made our "J-P" logo into the concrete. Jill came up with this symbol when she was just a sophomore in high school, so it's been part of our relationship for almost as long as we've been together!