Our weekend project turned out great!

So we finally got around to building the arbor on the deck. We built it to block out some sun. The side doors on the house get pretty hot during the day. It took us about two days. We purchased most of the lumber and tool, and began last weekend. Then Steven's boss helped us get the 16 foot 2x6s to our duplex on Wednesday. This Saturday (5/9) we got started at about pretty early and finished just as the sun was going down.

In this picture, Steven was contemplating where to begin...

We had to clamp the boards together in order to notch out the places for the 16 foot boards. We didn't have clamps (and I told Steven that we couldn't buy any because that would make a good Christmas/Birthday gift...) so we used ties. Below I'm marking the spots where the boards will be...

Steven started to make the cuts...

Then we used a chisel to knock out the notches...

I told Steven that I felt like Jesus. All the wood working was fun!

This picture is day 2. We rearranged and, again, contemplated where to begin.

We had to cut the boards so that they would have that traditional "arbor look"...

Steven did most of the work... I was just his little side-kick.... helping him move boards, bringing him sunblock or water...

We were beginning to assemble the first side...

hmmm... which toy to play with next...

one down (or up), one to go...

attaching the post to the deck...

I was so happy because we were almost done!

first board...

The clouds and sunset was AMAZING...

from underneath...

We waited till the morning to take pictures of the completed project. It got dark pretty quick...

The rest of the picture are from different angles around the house...

And if you are interest, you can enlarge these (click on them) and see it up close.

Well, I'm glad we are done and we love having it. It feels like we acquired a third room! We are going to set up our grill and Steven wants to add a counter/rail next to the house. It will be a pretty fancy place to hang out!