The Pergola
From the first time that I told Frank that I wanted to do a pergola on the back of the house, it was a battle. I had planned since last November to have a bridal shower here for my daughter Kasie, and wanted to have it under a pergola. Frank, in no way was in favor of a pergola. In his mind, it didn’t serve a purpose and he wanted to extend the roof out and have a covered patio outside of the sunroom. But, I was adamant that a covered porch wouldn’t let the sun shine into the sunroom, and the sunroom would become a shade room. So to make me happy, he built a pergola, and as it started coming together, he admitted that he liked how it turned out.
This is what we started with. The back of the house shortly after we purchased the house a little over two years ago.
We first took the siding off of the gable. After doing that, we realized that the exterior wall was actually bowed in. Whoever had installed the windows had not installed the correct support and as usual, this job turned into a bigger one than expected. The first step was to pour the concrete for our porch. Once it was poured and set up for a couple of days, our concrete guy came back and cut in the pattern.
Next came the fun part of taking out the center windows. Then, the dangerous part of pulling the wall out by strapping it to a truck and pulling it out. Believe it or not, it worked and we were able to then put in supports on both sides of the door and made the whole wall secure and stable. Good jobs guys!
Next came installing the shake siding in the gable and building the pergola, which is when I got really excited.
From the beginning I thought that I wanted the pergola to be stained wood and not painted, but as it got closer to time to make the final decision, I questioned my decision. I did a poll among family and friends and stained wood was voted in unanimously. I couldn’t be happier with the results!
Until next time, be happy and RTR.
All construction done by Biltmore Construction, General Contractor, Frank McDonnell, 615-310-9211.
