Who needs a warm sunny place for spring break? Spring break is for getting out in the garden and doing something. For this spring break, I spent over two weeks looking at plans to build an arbor over my basement stairs. I couldn't find anything pre-made that I liked and I couldn't find any plans that were exactly what I wanted, so it was time to come up with something on my own.
I started with a plan similar to what I wanted. I knew I wanted a curved arch at the top. This was the hardest part because I didn't know how to curve the wood. The plan I finally ended up with included cutting a 2x12x10 board into a 6" curve. I also liked this plan because it looked like it would be wide enough without needing to do any alterations to the length.
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I did decide to add width to the arbor and change the sides. The original plan would have been 3 feet wide. I wanted to cover the entire railing around the basement so I was going to have to make the arbor between 4 and 5 feet wide (depending on where I could put the post holes). I also didn't really care for the vertical bars on the sides - a little too shaker for the style of my house. So I spent time looking at what different options were available and how I thought they would look in my yard. I also wanted to add an additional section to the south side of the arbor so that when you sit on the new patio, you don't look straight through to the air conditioner. This also had a large part in what the final design would look like. Here are some of the sketches I did to visualize the finished product.
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| Frame without sides |
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| Possibility 1 |
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| Possibility 2 |
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| Possibility 3 (The winner) |
I tried coming up with alternate designs that would leave a little more open space, but I didn't like them any better than doing a solid lattice (which would be easier) and I want vines to eventually cover the whole thing. So that was the design that won.
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| Isometric projection of the project |
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| View from the north looking south |
Day 1
Once I finalized the plans, it was time to get to work. I measured where the posts needed to go and knew that I had a big problem to solve. Where one of the posts was going to go, there was a tree stump. We cut out three overgrown cedar trees in 2011 and one of the stumps was right where a post needed to go. So, day one of the project was cutting out a tree stump with an ax and digging two post holes. I also knew that there were two concrete footings in the way from an old woodshed. This forced me to move the posts out about four inches further than I wanted, but it was better than digging out all that concrete and I knew I had the width on the pergola for it. I still have to dig three more post holes on the south side of the stairs, so my digging is not over yet. There might be another tree stump in the way on that side, too. Let's hope not. It took 2.5 hours to cut out the first stump and dig the post holes. Let's hope it doesn't take that much time on the second side! I ended my work on this day knowing that there was rain in the forecast for the following evening. I covered up the holes with a tarp and planned my materials list.
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| Brad cutting down the cedar trees in 2011. |
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| The tree stump |
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| The post holes on the north side |
Day 2
Menard's day! It took about two hours to get all of the materials. I admit I also got a few materials for another project that I'll blog about at another time. The 2x12x10 boards and a few of the 2x2x8 boards were frozen, so that was all the work I could do for the day. I guess that was ok because it was time to go on a 7.3 mile bike ride in Busse Woods then a Town Hall meeting with the Sierra Club. Busy, busy!
Day 3
My wood was probably not quite dry enough, but it was time to get this project going if I had any hope of finishing it this week. My first task was figuring out how to get the curve exact. I tried using some PVC, but it wouldn't bend the way I wanted. I ended up using a tent pole. Once everything was marked, I tried using a jigsaw to cut it, but it ended up cutting really wonky. Nothing was straight and it looked horrible. So the other two I cut with a circular saw and it looked much better. Hopefully, I can hide the bad one in the back. Otherwise, I'll have to buy another board which I really don't want to do.
I tried sanding it, but the wood was too wet. Hopefully, by tomorrow I'll be able to sand it all down. I was also able to cut the cap pieces, but the rest will have to wait until tomorrow.
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| I left the boards to dry. With any luck, they will be dry enough by tomorrow. |
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| I was able to set everything up to see how it would look in the backyard. The post is 6' tall. The finished post will be 7' so that is not quite the height it will be when finished, but it's a good approximation. |
See Part 2 of the journey here.
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