Thursday, November 11, 2010

Hangin' Out - Pt. 1

This is a project we tackled a while back but i haven't had a chance to post about it yet.  Our backyard is a definitely a marked target for us when it comes to improvement and renovations. The previous owners of the house had 3 dogs that spent a lot of time in the backyard so when we moved in the backyard wasn't in the best of shape...let's just say it had been neglected for some time.... Our first project back there was building our raised bed garden and our second project was this one -- a hammock stand with a pergola roof.

Luckily, my husband is a structural engineer so he was able to design the structure, making sure that it would actually stand up over time. He began with a couple sketches (which i found absolutely adorable)
  
He doesn't know I took the picture ;)

Then we figured out what kind of wood we needed, including specific sizes and amounts as well as bolts and concrete.  We then hopped in his SUV and took a trip to our neighborhood Lowe's (that is WAY too close to our house to avoid urges and desperately needs a Rewards program!!) and picked up all of our supplies. As always, getting all of the wood home without a pickup truck was interesting...

thank god Mark's back window rolls down in his SUV!

...but we made it!

Next, we decided placement in the yard and marked where the holes would be dug for the footings. We then marked the spaces with spray paint. And then...Mark dug.....and dug.....and dug.... Our yucky clay soil did NOT make it easy on him! 

                                            

After getting the holes dug we had to place the 6 x 6 posts into the ground. The trick here was to make sure that they were level. We did this by marking off where they would go in the hole with twine then placing them in the holes and lastly taping a level to the post to make sure it remained level within the hole. Mark then used 2 x 4's to secure the posts until we could pour the concrete in. 



                                       

Now it was time for concrete......but wait....it started to RAIN!!! And not just rain, but POUR!!!
We got soaked trying to cover up our holes with a plastic dropcloth so that the holes didn't fill with water. And the rain definitely delayed us for a bit!

Stay tuned for the next chapter in building our  hammock stand... :)

xo, 
The Indecisive Wife

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Were the post 4x4 treated ? and how deep did you put the post into the ground?
Thanks...love it !
Judy

Aquablue said...

What is the width between the two posts? Did you come up with this measurement from your Hammock or did you just choose a distance?

I Love the end result (pt. 2 ) of your hammock stand, it looks really great.
When we bought our house a few years ago, we needed to replace the fences on either side.We got approval from both neighbours and made a similar pergola across the length of both fences to house the Grape vines the previous home owners had planted.

Anonymous said...

Thanks awesome idea I used your blog and made one for myself

Unknown said...

Hi, was wondering the same questions. Distance between poles and how deep poles are in the ground. Thank you. I love it!

Unknown said...

Hi, was wondering the same questions. Distance between poles and how deep poles are in the ground. Thank you. I love it!

Photoguy1955 said...

Did you paint the post bottom to the ground level to prevent rot?
Distance between the posts?

vsbj said...

Can you use 4x6 poles instead of 6x6 and also can you use lighter wood for the top so it will not be so hard to do the top

Unknown said...

Can you advise where you purchased the hammock cover?
Can it be purchased separately.
Thank you