A Great Day of Pergola...

So, yesterday we decided to lop eight inches off the top of the posts because I had bought posts that were too big.  These means that we wasted two days putting up posts that turned out to be the wrong size.  Sigh.

Today we cut the top of the posts to hold the five by eights that run left to right.  Then we bolted on the five by eights, and then we put the old two by tens back on  It proved to be quite the challenge to drill through the new posts and hit the old holes, but Paul did a great job.

We got this far by early afternoon (after starting at 8:00 a.m. this morning).  We decided to keep going and two hours later we had the eleven two by fourteens back up.

So here is what it looks like now...

I am very happy with the end result.  I need to clean up the piles of dirt, stain the whole business and then put the bricks back in the patio.  But I am very happy with this result.  It is much more stable and solidly built.

Thanks to Paul who gave up a week of his time to come over here and work in ninety degree heat and humidity to get this beast put back together.

I can't wait to go outside and lounge under  the new structure.  Whew, we made it...