My Handsome Handy Man

There are many reasons I love my husband. Many. Tons!

But, one thing that continually impresses me is my husband's ability to conquer projects around our home.
He likes to learn new things and isn't afraid of tackling projects he's never done before...like wiring the kitchen for lights, putting up drywall, laying ceramic tile, and building a pergola.
Joel started to build our pergola in November. The weather and early sunsets extended the project time to about three weeks--though the actual work time wasn't that much. He ran into some snags along the way --like 4 trips to Home Depot the first day he worked on it. But, he did a great job!
Our old pergola was one reason we loved the house. We knew it needed to be replaced, but we didn't know just how badly. We got a new roof (thanks to hail damage) in September and decided to rip off the old pergola at that point. We were glad once it came down, but were excited to get a new one back in place.The old pergola was falling apart. Visitors always liked it, but they didn't see the little pieces coming off bit by bit like we did.
The old pergola was built with the little crossbeams under the main top. We realized why after we tore it down -- the eave of the house! But, we adjusted the supports on the house to accommodate moving the little pieces to the top, where they belong. On the top of the main beams coming out from the house, the previous homeowner had put a mesh sunscreen. Actually, it had two layers of sunscreen...an older piece on the bottom and a newer piece on top. The bottom-most layer began to dry rot and with strong winds, it was coming through the underside in shreds. Not pretty.
Because the pergola was not really an "open" air structure with that sunscreen in place, leaves and debris were weighting down the top and also providing a nice place for bugs to hide. Joel said the wood was splitting apart and lots of little bugs (not termites) were in all the crevices. Eew!

We waited two months between taking the old pergola down and building the new pergola. It took me that long to finally get around to balancing all our books so we'd know exactly how much money we could spend on the project. [I think I was a little afraid the answer would be zilch.]

Joel used pressure-treated wood, which shouldn't be stained for about a year. Aside from that cost later on, the project came in well under our $600 budget.
I'm so glad to have a pergola back in place. This is the blaring sun that would greet me in the morning when that shade structure was no longer in place.