What the hell is a Pergola?
I heard the question a lot when I talked to people about my plans for my patio.
A pergola is a garden feature forming a shaded walk or passageway of pillars that support cross beams and a sturdy open lattice, upon which woody vines are trained. It may also be part of a building, as protection for an open terrace. The origin of the word is the Late Latin pergula, referring to a projecting eave.
So my Pergola is finally finished after a week of nail biting and near arguments. On our first attempt we found out that the concrete below the corner posts was only about 2 inches thick in some spots. Apparently the previous owners had laid down cinder block and then just pour concrete over the top of it. So there were open spaces underneath the concrete. It was hard to get the posts secure because there wasn’t much for the lag bolts to connect to. After 2 hours we finally secured the posts but it was still a little shaky so we had to put up braces to keep the whole thing from falling over in the middle of the night.

On the second night Lennie decided to use bolts instead of the wood screws the plans called for. While drilling the holes for the bolts, he leaned too much on part of the pergola we already had up. In doing this he pushed the whole structure over to about a 45 degree angle. We couldn’t get it to stand back up again so we had to take down everything we had just put up. We were now back to the beginning with just the 4 corner posts standing. Lennie saw how upset and stressed I was because I feared it wouldn’t be done in time for the house warming. So he showed up at 3PM the next afternoon and worked till 10PM to get the structure up. I spent the rest of the week staining it. All we have left to do is paint the lattices that go on top and plant the vines that will eventually cover the lattice. We went about $50 over budget but I love the final product.

Here is a before shot of what the patio looked like when I bought the house.

Here is what it looks like now.

I have some more decorating to do. I need to find a table and chairs and get some plants to hide the cord from the fountain. I purchased so cool oil lanterns on Sunday. I can’t wait to fully enjoy it.