Gazebo for Mom
I’ve slacked off with mah blog. Okay, vehicle was fixed by Thursday the 17. The entire bumper was replaced and it looks great. They even washed the car for me. Yey! Of course, by now, it’s all dirty again. :p
Over the last weekend Hubby and I helped my parents with a project they have started. Mom wants a little gazebo of sorts for her back yard and we’ve begun construction.
It will be a fairly small one - 8x8. We didn’t want to go over 10x10 because then we would have needed a building permit (only 30 bucks to get it... but the waiting period is what we wanted to avoid). It will have a semi-open ceiling, sort of like window blinds, angled enough to let little sun thru.
Last Saturday we did four 2-feet deep holes to set the main posts; leveled them with the cool leveling thing-a-maggigy (you know, the one with the bubble and the water), added and subtracted sand until it was as we needed it and mixed some concrete to anchor down the posts. We let the concrete dry overnight.
By now the posts are all set up and we started making the frame... I have some pictures but I’ll be taking more tomorrow, when we’ll actually start working on the floor and finish up the skeleton for the roof.
It is lots of heavy work, especially with the high temperatures here (last weekend we were at 106) but it’s fun!
Okay, we’ll see how much we get finished tomorrow and Sunday. ^_^
8 Comments:
:) the gazebo sounds fun!
the leveling thing-a-maggigy is called...a level. ;D
Marianne is right... lol
You know? Why don't you become an engineer? These little projects of yours is the simplest of engineering things!
:D
You would just be fine tuning things -- exact aggregate mixes for concrete, asphalt even
-- proper calculation on weather or not the roof will hold up in the gazebo either from live weight (birds probably), or rain... I'd add snow, but you don't get that there :P
See? Cool, eh?
weather should be whether... darn it...
that's what I get for typing two things up at once -_-
Gazebo's are nice. You only need a building permit if somebody asks to see one you know. =p
94F and high humidity here in Pittsburgh this weekend. We were helping people move into a new house. Oh yeah, lets try out the new pool!
Karnov: Down here we don't need a building permit as long as the roofed construction is less than 10 feet by 10 feet. Or as long as whatever we are building doesn't require deep scavation (due to power lines and all that). I did go the week prior to contrstruction to the city offices to ask and that's what they said! :D Got the printed rules too just in case.
Marianne: The level, got it! Used one of those too. What about the 'other' leveling thing-a-maggigy... the one that is just one long, clear hose? ^_~ bubble meter? No idea. Very rustic piece of equipment, I used it to make sure my posts were all at the same level, even though the ground wasn't. Same concept as the 2-foot level, but used when you don't have a horizontal or vertical beam where to place the level.
Lore: an engineer... well, technically, according to my school, I already am one, just in a different area. ayayay. But I suppose I could always take 2 more semesters or so and add the extra major; however, I don't think I need it unless I want to show off the degree - which I do not, as it is, my degrees are buried somewhere in tons of papers away from prying eyes. I've met a couple of people that know quite a bit without being engineers. It's all about hands-on. You've probably learned more at your job than at your classes.
I like building things. I like getting messy. I like knowing how to do things that other people take for granted. It's a hobby, not a job. If I went to school for it, it would not give me the same satisfaction. ^_^
>>What about the 'other' leveling thing-a-maggigy... the one that is just one long, clear hose? ^_~
hmmm! I don't think I've ever seen one, so I have no idea! now I'm curious...
hehe. It's just a clear hose found at any hardware store. You pour water into it and use basic physics knowledge to make it work. No particular branded item.
say you put two sticks into the ground, one pushed depper than the other. You raise the edges of the hose to each end of the sticks and you shall notice that the water level on one end of the hose is closer to the edge than at the other end. What do you do to level them? You lower or raise one stick until both hose 'edge levels' are at the same distance from the top. Hmm, sounds complicated when I write it. Maybe I can show it with pictures sometime in the future.
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