Pergula Paradise!

While the Alumawood pergola was being built, I painted the metal railings on the upstairs balcony outside the master bedroom. It took three days as I would stop about noon when the sun and heat would come beating down on me. And I was constantly having to meet with the various workers and answer the phones and such.




On Friday, September 30 I finished the front balcony railing, the one I started painting last spring and had to stop because of the heat. Now it is fall, early morning is a great time to paint.

I had just enough of the Rustoleum almond paint to cover the back gate. What a transformation that was, from a white rusty gate to this beautiful finish. I brushed it, rather than spraying, just because, for me, it is easier to prep and clean up from brushing. But I have always been good at painting.



Mark showed up on Monday, September 26 to install the pergola. He carried all the supplies from his truck, arriving at 6:40 a.m. He began putting up pieces and I kept looking at them, thinking: "where are the beams for the pergola? This looks like a covered roof"




I even asked him if the beams were going to run parallel to the house or east and west. It wasn't until Lance came out when Mark had three sections up and asked me: Is this what you wanted, a covered patio or a pergola? Then I really looked at what he had put up. My patio would have looked like this.




He finally realized that we had been SAYING "pergola" but he had been thinking "covered patio." He took it down, was able to return most of the product and order the new pergola material.

But I saw how much I needed to paint the upper patio railing so Tuesday morning I painted from the ladder on the outside. It was a good thing he hadn't finished the patio so I could paint.


Wednesday morning he showed up with the correct supplies and began building at 7:00 a.m. He had a three hour head start on his project before the turf guys brought the roll of putter green to lay down. It was kind of crazy with both projects going on at the same time. Thankfully the yard is big enough to handle two projects at once. I am just not sure I have the mental capacity to oversee both!


Ladders, ladders everywhere and lots of little screws and cords.
The structure grows bit by bit without using real boards.







Mark is on the metal "board" between two ladders, putting up the support beams.

You can see the guy with the compactor hard at work in the background, getting ready to put down the turf.




To get the same spacing of the top row he lined them up together and drove metal screws into every other one, then moved the piece to the next row. I was on the balcony looking down but occasionally went down to take a photo.





I took this picture to show the connection of the beams to the existing patio. It looks amazing.







Normally one would not extend the boards past the beam more than two feet, but we extended the boards as far as they would go and Mark used a bendable piece of PVC pipe to mark the curve, following the curve of the cement patio, newly poured. He put caps on the end after they were cut. See how blue the sky is?




This photo has two purposes: you can see the end caps of the support beams and how much shade it makes. You can also see them removing the plastic wrap around the putting green turf roll. I should have taken a picture when the whole roll was spread out. They cut off several feet at the end of the roll and it is now in the garage at the back door, all clean and organized.



Almost finished, I can not believe how much shade we get. Even when the sun is going down, there is protection from the sun rays on the back windows looking out into the yard.






The finished supports on the patio, showing the putting green in the background.

Want to come play at my house?





How nicely rounded the ends are! How lovely it looks and the color blends right with the color of the house.

All the brochure pictures I saw of various designs did not picture anything as lovely as this turned out.

I am planning to run a couple of rope lights on the beams to light the patio. Can we have a party?

Counsel: Communication is tricky. One thinks the idea was heard, but find out no one was really listening. It is always good to parrot back what you think you heard, just to make sure.