Tralali trala Trellis

Hi there,

hope you enjoyed the summer, we sure did.  Our backyard projects did go on "pause" for August but we're back on them now.  A little off topic but in August we usually hold a little shindig at our place with some family and friends.  The evening always ends with a fireworks display that me and a buddy put together.  This year was first year we had another friend take a bunch of pics and video of the event.  I'll post video when I get it but here is a cool pic he took of us when we doing the fireworks.

So back to my current project, a trellis (or pergola??? what the hell do you call these things?) to replace our old rotted fence attempting to hold up our growing grape vines.  As I mentioned in my last post, I've been manually digging the holes for the concrete pillars and although this structure is eventually going to require 16-20 posts, this year I'm aiming to finish up half the structure so 8 will do.  I've got 6 done but I went ahead and started the framing.

As you can see, the ground isn't level but next year we will level it out.  Now if you know anything about these brackets that i have in the concrete pillars, you know they are made for standard dimensional lumber, meaning a 6X6 is really 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.  Problem is that I'm building this with rough lumber so I had to dress down (with a hand planer) the end of the posts I was putting into the brackets.

So by taking close to 1/16 off at a time with my powered hand planer, a few passes on each side did the trick.

Now before I put these posts up, I needed to mill the other end to be able to cradle the horizontal beams.  One day I may learn some fancier jointing techniques but this was simplest way I thought could give me the strength and a bit of a design aspect.  Again, working with rough lumber does have some drawbacks as my skillsaw only has a cut depth of 2 1/4 inches so one cut on each side, a 2 inch cut across and then I finished with a reciprocating saw.  Out of 8 posts that I did like this, I had a slight offset (one cut not aligning perfectly with the other) on just one post so I'm pretty happy with that.

Now it was time to start building this thing.  I put some anchor stakes into the ground so I could temporarily brace the posts on 2 axis, so I could keep them level.  This was a little tough to do by myself but I knew I'd be able to tweak the positioning of these posts once I had a few pieces of the structure in place.

Put up a few more of the posts then it was time to add some horizontal pieces.  Again, no one else was home, the dog just wants to sit there and watch and don't get me started on how useless the goats are when it comes to building stuff.  So thankfully, last year's big purchase has become the swiss army knife of the farm.

I know this picture screams "you need a bigger tractor", but some day, maybe, probably.  In the meantime, even though the bucket couldn't lift as high as was needed, it still was really easy to get that piece up there when you only need to lift it up another foot or so.  I was able to just lift one end and put it in it's place and then move ladder to other end and finish putting it in place.  Having the right tools makes these projects so much more fun (and easier).

I did put in another full day on this last weekend but it was a rainy day so I wasn't pulling the camera out too much.  I have to say, this is one project where I didn't really do any drawings and just had the rough deisgn in my head.  Anyone who knows me will find it odd that I hadn't meticulously planned every aspect of this project but I figured it would be a simple one.  The surprise for me during this project is that although I had a "vision" of what it would look like, the finished product is already starting to exceed my expectations.  Once this is fully done next summer, it will be a central feature in our landscaping.  I think we will end up building outwards from this feature.  The positioning of it is pretty neat as well.  From the pics in this post it might be hard to see but this structure will be flanked on both sides by two maple trees.  The center of the structure will then extend towards the old barn we plan on refurbishing next summer.  That "center" will then serve as the "gateway" to the back portion of the property. 

So for now I've run out of lumber, but more is getting delivered tomorrow.  By end of this weekend I should have some new pics for you, but in the meantime, thanks for stopping by.

André

DIY Greenhouse and other projects

Well hello there.  You thought I was gone didn't you?

Apologies for not posting in a while but now that I have several upcoming projects, thought I'd get back into documenting them.  Not to mention after not doing much on it last year, I am planning on upgrading the main project, the pirate ship in a few weeks from now.  I've got some neat ideas on how to finally complete this project but more on that in posts to come.  

So what have been up to?  Well, the wife wanted a greenhouse for this summer so late last fall we salvaged the frame from a temporary garage (10x20) and got to work.  I should have taken some pics of just the frame but here you go. 

I took the side braces and moved them up to the roof section to give the plastic that would eventually cover it more support.  I didn't know what kind of winter to expect but I sure as hell didn't want to do all this work and come spring have plastic all shredded so I built up some half walls.  All the wood used was hemlock, which I find gives me excellent rot resistance and there is a small family mill 5 minutes from the house that saws it and leaves it in rough form, meaning a full 2 inches thick.  

Now the pic below is once we had greenhouse sheathing draped over it.  The Mrs. was afraid of too much air getting in so opted to have the plastic right down to the ground.  I felt that with tongue and groove boards, there shouldn't be much air and that having plastic over the wood would keep too much moisture and be detrimental to the wood.  Look at the picture and try to guess who won that discussion.

So the pics so far were right before winter. Below you can see we've accentuated the setup with some garden boxes and some screen doors on each end of the greenhouse to let air and pollen carrying critters through.  Oh, you may also notice that my plan of leaving the wood uncovered by plastic has been revisited.

Honestly, this really turned out better than expected.  The pic below is from a few weeks ago but yesterday my wife said he tomato plants in there are the best looking ones she has ever been able to grow.  She added a few solar driveway lamps in there and at night it looks pretty cool.

Another pic below here shows behind, again a few boxes.

Now here are some pics of upcoming projects.  First up is an old fence we have been using as support for some grape vines.  As you can see this fence is dead.  I'm currently (one per night), digging holes for concrete pillars (in the ground) that will support a trellis (or pergola, not sure which is which).  Hoping to have this project done by end of next week.

Next up is going to be the pirate ship.  It has endured a few rough winters and still held up and any time there Matt has one or more friends over, this still becomes make believe central.  I'll be finishing up the rigging, replacing the cheap cargo net, finishing railings and a few other bells and whistles.  Need to get this finished before our yearly fireworks shindig in mid-August.

Next pic are big logs I got from a neighbor.  Have no idea what I'm going to do with them yet but I'm looking for ideas.

The bridge is still rock solid but severe flooding in the spring has eroded quite a bit of soil around the concrete piers so I need to fix this before winter.  I'm hoping the creek will dry up enough this summer that I can pour more concrete to shore up the piers.

Now before I get to the bulk of these projects, I need to sort out the workshop.  It is a DISASTER right now.

Following pic is of the other section which I have started to clean up.

So that's what I've been up to and what's coming up.  I've got a few other smaller projects that I want to try and get to as well but I don't want to put them down here quite yet.  If I write about them now, a certain someone will hold me to them. : )

I'll be back shortly, I promise.  And as always, thanks for dropping by.

Social Media

Addendum!  

As I was closing off the last post, I thought about the other social media outlets I'm on and if you want to know when new posts come out, you can also follow me on Twitter at @Stratt38.

Fair warning, my posts there are not limited to home improvement issues but you might be amused from time to time while you await anxiously a tweet that says "new post on backyard kidz!"

Cheers!
André

Not the end of the road, yet.

Good day and welcome back (to me too I guess).

A reader sent in a comment asking if I was done and thought I'd do a quick post about the status of the ship.

We spent this past summer and fall taking actual vacation time and working on a few other projects.  Had to build a new raised chicken coup that would blend in to the surroundings.

The chicken coup was partially built out of used pallets.  That's a bit where we're heading with some of our projects, salvaging and giving new life to materials.  My wife has been spending quite a bit of her online time on Pinterest and she found some nifty uses for used pallets.  There is one project in particular, a small cabin made out of pallets that is just amazing and we have started to collect pallets to make one.  We have maybe 8-10 pallets but I guess we'll need about 100.

We also decided it was time (the Mrs. has actually been asking for one for years) to build a greenhouse.  So I recycled to metal frame from a used temporary garage and added in some wood components and we covered the thing with greenhouse plastic sheathing and voilà, instant greenhouse.  Actually, it wasn't as instantaneous as that.  I built sidewalls so we wouldn't have to shovel snow away from the sides during the winter.  Still need to rearrange the interior but I should have some neat pics of this project up at some point.

Other projects ahead in 2015:  well in continuing with out recycling theme, the workshop is in for a major overhaul.  Yes, the little red barn that we had always planned on demolishing once we got around to (and have the budget to) building a garage, will be SAVED!  We are going to tear down sections that are not salvageable but the main 2 story section will be saved.  We will add a small garage (22x12 maybe) and also a covered porch section in the back.  Be sure to check in on this project, should be a fun one.

So the list for this summer is now (not necessarily in order of completion):

• finish pirate ship
• renovate the red barn into something AWESOME.
• Finish greenhouse (it is pretty much done but once we start using it, there will undoubtedly be some changes to be made).
• Finish chicken coup (actually only a few pieces of trim remain and we'll probably finish that this winter)
• Finish the actual barn (this is the one with the actual farm animals in).  It's a board and batton but I never actually got around to putting the battons on.  Also need to rethink the windows in the hayloft as some rain does make it's way in.

Lots of other small projects but the big ones will be the ship and the red barn.

On the pirate ship, I'd be interested to hear your ideas as to what you think is missing.  Here is what is planned.

• Crows nest with rope bridge to the bridge.
• Finish railings
• Cargo net (we bought one but I find it very flimsy so will buy a spool of rope and make one from scratch)
• Possibly use some netting to make a mock-sail.  I don't want something that will catch too much wind but would like something that "simulates" a real sail.
• Finish the cabins (need to put in some sleeping areas) and brig area.
• "Child proof" a few hatches.  I don't have any springs or pistons slowing down the shutting of hatches and although doors aren't too bad, the hatch in the middle of the deck has ALMOST caught a few fingers.

That's it for now I guess but check back soon for progress reports on the ship and any other projects I'll have on here.

And to everyone, a very happy 2015!

André

I'm BACK!

Well, it looks like winter is finally over.  We celebrated by going for a few days of spring skiing last weekend but as of yesterday, there is no snow left.  That means I'm about to start work on the ship again.

I have to say, it came through winter pretty good.  I noticed last night that the stain had weathered a bit so I may need to put a coat sometime this summer but I'll likely wait till I'm all finished.  Noticed also on one side of the ship that the ground settled a little and I have a few support points to adjust (re-shim).

So over next few weeks, I'll be ordering some of the accessories (rope ladder, cargo net, ship's wheel, etc...) and finsihing the design of the crow's nest, which I'll get my neighbour the master welder, to make. 

So no new pics today but I wanted to do a quick post to say that the project is still alive and I am looking forward to finishing it soon.

Will update soon....

A.