I have a guy that does Costco deliveries (Banshee Express) and he was quick to pick them up and bring them to the house. Now, the next problem. Assembly.
Chris offered his help with assembly and said we could put these together. He's watched the video and I read a bunch of reviews online and yeah, we can do it! So, I didn't seek out anyone to put them together.
On Mother's Day, I decided I'd love to get started and Chris was game to dive in to help. We opened a boxes and organized parts and pieces.
Just a few parts...
And only a few boards... There are 3 boxes for each gazebo. 2 boxes of wood pieces and wood box full of roof panels.
and then the idea occurred to me that we should stain them before assembly as it would be way easier than after. I knew that if I waited until after, it would never happen.
Let the staining commence!
OMG - will it ever end.
Staining, and staining and bending over the boards on the driveway. I'm already done and we've just begun.
But the first rounds of staining were done and we worked a few hours on getting the posts square and upright. Yahoo!!
Then the posts started shifting because we didn't have the corbels and roof on. We fixed that a few days later.
They shifted again... Seriously? UGH
We will have to get that squared up and fixed before the roof project begins. Speaking of the roof, I have more to build...
I decided to keep working on the staining and assembly. So, I assembled roof rafters in the driveway after work. The days have been VERY hot, so dusk is about the only time. I'm sure the neighbors are loving the sound of my hammer drill at 9pm. I've had more than one neighbor stop and ask what in the world am I up to now. They all think I'm crazy. I know, I'm a girl, I work hard. I do "guy" stuff. Whatevs, I'm capable and can do it, so why not?
Making sure they are coming together square. YEP! My dad taught me well...
And here's where it ends. I put these in the garage and after a couple of weeks, I was getting antsy for some shade.
and while I am sure we are both purely capable and CAN put them together, this project is going to take us a year and a half and by then, I'll be so tired of them I won't even appreciate their shade. Time to hire someone...
Onto craigslist I went. I found someone in the Bay Area (2 hours away) that has assembled 20 of these exact gazebos just this summer. TWENTY!!! Seriously, you're my guy!!
So, we agreed on a price and a date and our gazebo build is about to happen! I'm so ready for some shade.
They drove up and arrived at 7am. It's going to be nearly 100 today and they have a full day of building ahead of them.
I was at work all day and came home to check on the progress during my lunch break. They were nice to keep sending me picture updates as I was anxious as to what was going on. I am a bit of a control freak, and not being there to see how they were coming together was stressing me out a bit. They were super nice and always ready to share the progress pics with me from afar.
The first one is really coming together.
Almost done!
They then fully assembled the roof panels and the columns of the second one before even starting on the build. It was interesting to see their process, it was different than how we had done it on the first one.
They finished late evening, we put the furniture back and the sun is going down. Time to enjoy a little patio time.
I bought some light strands at Costco, installed them and now the patio lights up beautifully!
LOVE IT!
Here is something I haven't seen in a very long time... The floor of my garage!!
I love a good project, but sometimes you just have to know when you're in over your head and need to call in resources. We just didn't have the time to get this one done and I'm so glad we were able to find someone with some experience to put them together. The guys were super nice and I would recommend them to others. Here is their info:
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