Shade Structure

Pretty much Gunnar is turning into Pa Ingalls. Or my dad. Or Bob Villa. Or maybe even Tim the Toolman Taylor. In any case, his handy man skills have hugely improved since moving out to the country. Well, technically, he did not use much lumber before we moved here, so I am not sure if his skills were just hidden or if they are recently acquired. Pretty much the only thing left are a good pair of suspenders, as it is a well known fact, that in order to be a good handyman, you need a good pair of suspenders. I could go on and on about my feelings about suspenders, but I think instead I will share with you Gunnar's latest house project.

One of the down sides of Valley Center, is that is gets HOT. Although we are in December, it has still been hot. Our back yard unfortunately, has no shade. We have planted a bunch of trees but they will take time to grown. So Gunnar decided to build a shade structure for the cement pad off the garage. We hope that this will make this space more user friendly and conducive to socializing and spending time together.


I didn't manage to get any pictures from before he started, but I got their pretty soon after he began.
He has the beans laid out there, and is attaching the brackets to the garage.
At this point, I headed to the mall with Grace to meet up with Ann and Elena for a fun day of sister/cousin time.

By the time I got home, Justin, a teenager from church, and Alberto, one of the deacons, were over helping out, and a lot of progress had been made!

I really like this picture of Gunnar. There is something so manly about standing on a ladder and pounding nails.

Gunnar and Justin worked nailing the slats on, while Alberto handed them the level, and supervised.

Lastly, as the sun was going down (so I didn't get any good pictures) they added the shade cloth.

Finally all done! The whole thing went up in around 4 hours. Here it is the next morning. Gunnar sat there and did some of his morning reading.



That night we lit a fire in the old Franklin stove that is down there to be used as an outdoor fire pit. It was warm and beautiful and we drank hot chocolate while the sun went down. Gunnar and Grace sat down there and read while I got dinner ready.
I look forward to many happy times together in our backyard patio.