Day 8 - Erecting the Pergola, Fence and Benches

The day started at 7:30 am and I had a somewhat better turn out today.  I convinced Dad to help me set the poles for the fence on Friday, so I could get the fence done today.  My plan for the day was to erect the pergola and fence and install the benches.

I started off by asking everyone to clean the area of all the concrete left over from pouring the slab.  We set up a "bucket brigade" to haul it to the dumpster.

  

I got Tony from the ReStore to bring us the pergola and the benches with the fork lift so we could get started putting each of them together.



The pergola went together pretty fast.

 

Looks like its together....doesn't it..



  


Then, Travis noticed there were some rails that belonged on each end of the pergola, so we had to reconstruct a little bit.





Tanner and I made pretty short work of the change.

 




 Braun, Mr. Walker and Mr. Mathews were my fence crew.  They started with the stringers (2x4's) to hang the pickets. Mr. Mathews was a great help.  He made sure the fence was straight and level.

With all the packing material for the benches and the pergola, I had to keep asking for "dumpster patrol".  Jarrett (right) was always glad to help!

 Mr. Johnson and I started to put the benches together and found the bolts needed washers to keep them from going through the holes in the hardware.  I went into the Restore and found some washers, but Mr. Johnson ended up having to go the the hardware store to get some more.  Thank you for going to the store Mr. Johnson!







Tanner (center), Tim (left), and Mr. Johnson got things going with the benches.

Here is a picture of my Scoutmaster, Mr. Walker (left), Braun and Mr. Mathews (right) setting the final stringer for the fence.












Conner (left) got in on the fence building action and worked on putting up the rest of the pickets while the other group was working on the pergola.  Braun and Conner were intent checking the plumb on the pickets!  I think Conner found a new calling - "nail gunner"!

The pergola going up! The tall guys lifted their end on to the post we had set in the concrete.

Here is a picture of Jarret and Mr. Shedd setting the post for one leg of the pergola.

The fence was almost complete and the pergola was up about noon. 

Mr. Overly (far left) and Dad were the ones working on the gettting the legs set. They used 3/8" x 2" anchor bolts to hold the pergola down.  It won't go anywhere (at least not the legs)!

After the pergola was up and the fence mostly done, it was time to set the benches.  Because they were late geting here, we had left holes in the concrete to set the legs in and that meant we had to mix concrete in a wheel barrel, by hand, to set the legs.  The holes ended up being 18" deep and 12" around.  Mixing concrete in 95 degree weather was not really fun, but it had to be done. The concrete had to be just wet enough to mix, but dry enough to help hold the benches up.  It worked out just right!

After some sweeping and clean up, this project is looking pretty good.  This is something I can be proud of.  It will be here a long time.  I still have some decomposed granite to put around the concrete slab and the handicap bricks to set.  I am also on the hunt for some dirt to backfill around the right side of the slab.  I hope to have the younger scouts to help me with that next weekend.



A straight on look into the pergola.



I am glad I decided to put up the fence too!  It makes it look finshed and people won't have to look at the storage area and gas metering station at the rear of the property while they are meeting or lounging.  Mom did have a little help in convincing me to do that.  And as it turned out Mr. Mathews and his fence crew did a great job for me.  Thank you to all who came for Erecting day!  This includes Conner, Jarrett, Tanner, Tim, Braun, Travis, Mr. Shedd, Mr. Walker, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mathews, Mr. Overly and  Dad!  And thank you to Mom for getting up early and fixing us all a great breakfast!

Need to backfill with some dirt on this side of the concrete slab -That's for next weekend!