Lake Villa Improvements Year 2 (2021)
The Pergola
I began building the rectangular pergola atop a two-level deck in our backyard. I used eight 4x4 8-foot untreated posts because I was planning to paint it right away. I put up the outer ring that would support the ends of the cross beams and installed two temporary cross beams to support the other ends.
The original plan called for the eight cross beams that would form the octagon in the middle. I also had to add additional supports to hold them in position until they were all put up.
The Pergola
The boards I installed were obviously way too long, so I had to take them down and shorten them so that they only stuck out about a foot.
In addition, the center octagon wasn't centered, so I ran some string to locate the center.
The Pergola
Here, you can see that I added eight additional cross beams that were shorter. I also added an inner ring of support beams and removed the temporary beams. These inner boards were enough to support the weight of the cross beams. The pergola is now ready for painting!
The Pergola
Now you can see what it looks like mostly painted.
The Pergola
Here is the final build with some lights.
The Pergola
And with curtain rods, curtains, and the lights.
The Pergola
Finally, what it looked like at Christmas time!
The Pergola
The Flagpole v1
After building the pergola, we wanted to put a flagpole in the front yard, but we were pretty tapped out from the pergola expenses.
So we bought a couple of shower curtain rods and put them together and inserted the small wooden flagpole into it and stuck it into an umbrella stand.
This didn't work very well, as any strong wind would knock it over.
Marie did some Googling and found a way to create a semipermanent base. We placed a 1-inch PVC pipe inside a 4-inch PVC pipe, buried them in the ground, then poured concrete between them. We supported the assembly with some sticks to keep it straight.
The Flagpole v1
After it set, we planted a few flowers around it to somewhat hide it.
The Flagpole v1
The Flagpole v1
We then took the pole we made from the shower curtain rod and inserted it into the hole!
As you will see, we replaced this with a real flag pole and sturdier base during another year's upgrades.
