OK… I’m not as mad at the pergola, or at life in general, as I was the on the last couple of posts. I had temporarily lost my will to live. ????

A few days ago, I swear it felt like it was 150 degrees outside, even with our new big shade trees that we bought.  I, also, swear, Deb mumbled the words, “I really feel like I could drag all of this lumber to the middle of our yard and start a fire.  And then I would roast and eat an arsenic hotdog in celebration.”  ????  I just about fell off my chair laughing.

We’ve had a few days to relax because Deb has had to work at her part-time and I’m not even kidding, we both feel rested up when she works. ????  On those days, I either have a client or work around the house or in the gardens during the summer, but it’s low-key.  It’s nothing like lifting and holding 4,000 pound beams above your head.

Making Lots of Progress

So here we are today on Project Pergola….YAY!   The cross beams are all up and the lattice is almost done.

We have several little finishing touches to do before Deb does her part of trimming out those boring posts and I get to do my part of, you know, pooping it all up with stained glass and little twinkly lights.  ????  But just look at the cool pattern that reflects on the concrete from the lattice-work.

WHY we do the things we do….

I get asked A LOT why we do this to ourselves..  Why we don’t hire in the big guys to do the big projects we do.  And it really all boils down to money.  We would never be able to have some of the things we have if we didn’t do most of the work ourselves.

Here is just one example.  Last year, we had a local fencing company give us an estimate to install a privacy fence bordering our entire backyard.  We’ve installed many-a-fences, let me tell you, and we would rather dig our own eyes out with spoons than to do it again.  It’s a lot of heavy lifting, just like Project Pergola.

In the meantime, we did our own measuring and our own checking around at the cost of supplies to do the job ourselves, which was right around $1,200.  We got the estimate back for the same exact style and quality fencing and it was $4,200.  You read that correctly.  It was $3,000 more to have someone install the same exact fence that we could do ourselves.

I, by all means, do not want the fence police to message me and tell me why it costs so much because I know.  It’s a lot of heavy lifting of not only fence posts and panels, but the million bags of concrete that is needed at each post.  It’s a lot.  And, it’s totally worth the money if you cannot do this type of thing yourself.

BUT, we think we can do ANYTHING.

So, we try it.  And, usually we figure out that we CAN do it.

So we do it.

And we did it.

It wasn’t fun.

It wasn’t pretty.

But we did it!

Just as we did……. and are doing Project Pergola.  It’s not fun.  Remember the arsenic hotdog?  That should say it all right there.

Thanks for stopping by and I pledge my love to each and every single one of you.  I love, love, love (a million times) to hear from you.  Let me know what you think either here or on Facebook and Instagram.

Buh bye now, said in an old lady’s voice that is resting peacefully while her wifey works.

Danelle

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