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As you might have caught a glimpse of in my last post, we added a pergola! Actually, we added 2 pergolas, one for each side of our new patio! We had the seating area to the right of the patio when facing the house originally, but I had always planned to put the dining area over in that space, it just fit better like this for now.
We were out of town when our pergolas finally got delivered, literally had left a few hours prior to delivery! Talk about bad timing! They were extremely heavy and the company only sent one man to unload them! Luckily for us, one of our best friends owns a delivery company and lives in our neighborhood so he went to our house to help unload our shipment and our friends across the street from us also helped. They were able to get it all unloaded using a small fork lift type thing and get it into our driveway. It was so heavy we weren’t worried about it being stolen and we were only going to be gone for a few days. When we got home we got to work putting up our smaller pergola. We ordered a 10×12 size for the dining area and a 10×20 size for the cooking/hot tub area, plus a storage box. These came in 4 really large boxes and 1 smaller one.
Instead of trying to carry all the boxes to the back yard with just a few of us, we decided to open them out front and carry it piece by piece to the backyard and organize it for easier installation.
We cleared out the furniture and started putting it all together. We began with the legs, putting 2 together on the ground and then lifting them into place, making sure each legs were plumb with our levels before tightening all the screws.
We got both sides put together and then luckily I was exempt from helping with the louvers (which was easy, but SUPER tedious) because I’m only 4’11! It worked out in my favor so I just stayed on the ground and fetched things anytime they were dropped and handed him the louvers he had prepared.
Then after several hours it was all put together and we got the table put where it was supposed to be. You can read more about my DIY table in this post.
I was super excited for this patio to somewhat be put together so I could better envision the “after”! In the below picture the pergola looks slanted, that’s because it is. When they pour patios they angle it towards the yard a tiny bit to prevent water from standing and building up around the house.
The reason we chose these pergolas was because of the louvers. I personally don’t understand having pergolas that have an open roof all the time, but I also don’t want them closed all the time. So when I found these on amazon I was in! It just has a rod that hangs down on one corner (2 corners of the larger pergola) that you twist and it comes open or you can twist the other way and it will close them!
And the even better part, they are rain tight!!! When they are closed they have a drainage system that trickles down the sides and then down the legs letting the water escape from the bottom of the legs instead of falling on your head!
And then Mia and I put together the rolling storage bin that’s made by the same company for outdoor use. It was fairly simple to put together!
We have the medium sized container and I’m shocked with how much it’s able to hold! The last few years we had this sectional with a ton of pillows and ALL of the pillows, except the seat pillows, were able to fit in this bin!
17 pillows to be exact! And it’s slow close!
It also rolls really smoothly and easily and has locking wheels! We’ve even used it as a table when prepping/cooking food for the grill/smoker!
As you can see in the above photos, we did get the bigger pergola set up! This one obviously took longer because there were more louvers. Tyler got the 2 longer sides of the legs put together on the ground and me and some of our friends helped by holding the legs in place while he got the top supported.
But we have some awesome friends who are neighbors that stopped by to help Tyler and keep me company since I was too short to help! You can see my benches I made are strong and coming in handy! My dog even hung around to see what all the commotion was about.
Once it was all put together and where we wanted it, Tyler screwed it into the concrete with a hammer drill so the wind wouldn’t take it away. Side note: these louvers are rated to withstand up to 70mph winds.
Once the screws are in, there is a cap that goes over them to hide the screws. We put painters tape on the legs while he screwed them into place to try and prevent them from getting scratched, electrical tape might have been better.
Then our new hot tub got delivered!!!! We ordered it months ago before we even scheduled the patio to be poured! This company makes them custom and it can take a long time. It was 2 guys who were able to unload it from the truck and scootch it on the ground on a long pipe and used a strap to drag it. My mind was blown that it wasn’t damaged! That’s how good they are! They definitely know what they are doing. Tyler did have to take down the gate for it to fit, but he was easily able to put it right back up after.
Once it was all installed they filled it up and as soon as it was hot later that night Tyler couldn’t wait to get in! He’s always loved hot tubs and I’m so excited he has somewhere nice to relax since he’s such a hard worker and takes care of our family so well! He deserves it! This has been a dream of his, a boy in his happy place.
We even have a TV set up on the patio on a swivel so he can watch movies from the hot tub, he’s been in there almost every day for the last 3 months or so since we’ve had it!
Don’t worry, I enjoy it too along with our friends! We watched a bunch of Yellowstone and Landman episodes right here!
And sometimes I even hang out with him outside when the weather is nice if I don’t feel like getting in. This patio is truly a dream!
But we aren’t done yet! We also installed some fun lighting that we can operate from our phones and change it to whatever color we want! Like if we are watching the Stars game we will put it on green and white just for fun! Or blue so it looks like we are in the ocean! These are super easy to install (only took us 30 minutes) and are super customizable and an incredible price! Especially compared to the permanent jellyfish lighting that we have on the front of our house that does pretty much the same thing but cost us $2500 a few years ago!
Next up, my search for outdoor curtains.
I like this design! We have a walnut tree that rains walnuts for part of the year and I wonder if this would be strong enough to withstand those and also if we wanted to use our solo stove under it (opened up of course)
hmmm, these pergolas can supposedly withstand up to 70mph winds so I don’t see why they couldn’t withstand some walnuts. We’ve even had hail and they’ve done just fine! Not sure if they are dented or not since I’ve never climbed up there to look.