Garden Arbor

My Dad is a gardener.  More specifically, he grows roses.  Needless to say, he is outside a bunch.  When he wasn't in the flower beds tending his roses, he was was sitting underneath the large arbor in his backyard.  This under-engineered arbor supported four enormous Lady Banks Roses.  This October, my Dad had an emergency double-bypass.  The surgery went great and he was recovering nicely.  His recovery included sitting at the back window looking at his neglected garden.  Then, on top of that, his under-engineered arbor collapsed.  Needless to say, it wasn't a great fall for my Dad.

Luckily, Thanksgiving was going to be at my Dad's house this year.  That meant there would be lots of family members, a.k.a. free labor.  We decided to rebuild the arbor while everyone was there.

Step 1 The Demo

After the collapse, I demolished what remained of the old arbor. I was lucky that all the posts were in good shape and could be used again. This meant that we only had to worry about the overhead structure.

Craftsman Reciprocating Saw: 
http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00917175000P?vName=Power+Tools+%26+Equipment&keyword=reciprocating+saw&prdNo=9&blockNo=9&blockType=L9

Craftsman Work Gloves:
http://www.craftsman.com/shc/s/p_10155_12602_00947553000P?keyword=gloves&prdNo=2&blockNo=2&blockType=L2

Comments

[RCMadMatt]

Very nice! Clean and simple! I love it! One question - are the base posts you started with concreted into the ground? I hope your father is doing better!!!

Matt

[neologik]

very beauty desgin..
it looks great!

i need do the same in my yarn...

greets

[soex]

thank you

[squeakykeek]

I love the photo of your dad watching from the window, hilarious! Great job, the arbor looks fantastic.

[macarch]

Supervising can be very exhausting!

[jokun]

"tighten with... open end wench" made me lol. Sorry, not making fun of spelling errors, but this was as good one.

Great job on both the arbor and the instructable.

[macarch]

Hahaha...I missed that one. That gave me a good chuckle. I'm not sure if I'm going to correct it now or not.

Thanks for the comment.

[SoulvilleUSA]

Excellent work, a true craftsman's job. I'm sure your dad is proud of all of you and will cherish the arbor for years to come.

[laxap]

Nice story, good job, great results

[macarch]

Thanks. We definitely had fun building it.

[EaglesNest]

Your Dad's a lucky man to have such a thoughtful son. A great instructable and a heartwarming story too :)
I would love to see a picture of the roses when they were blooming over the old arbor.

[macarch]

Thank you so much. The old arbor collapsing couldn't have happened at a better time, two weeks before Thanksgiving when everyone in the family would be there. It was enough time to plan for it and it was a fun project for everyone to help out on. If it collapsed after Thanksgiving, I don't know when we could have gotten together to rebuild it.

It's hard to believe, but my Dad promises that it will be covered with Lady Banks this spring and in it's full glory the following spring. I will definitely post an update photo in the spring.

[lemonie]

Good work.

L