Brennan And Kirk Build A Patio

Brennan and I have been working hard on the outdoor kitchen we're building in the back yard. The weekend before last we helped our metal artist set the metal posts that will support the roof. First we drilled holes into the 2'x 2'x 2' concrete foundations and then epoxy-set four anchor bolts for each post. Then we man-handled three 600 pound 30' long glulam beams onto material lifts and cranked them 15 feet into the air before setting them onto the posts. Then an incredible amount of time was spent making sure each post was plumb and the whole structure was square. Finally we drilled holes and installed bolts in the glulams at each post.

Here we are installing the glulams.



This weekend Brennan and I installed the metal roofing. We carried the 23" long 3' wide 22-gauge galvanized steel into the back yard. Each weighed about 150 pounds and we didn't have a material lift so we had to man-handle them up onto the structure fourteen feet in the air--an act akin to building the great pyramid! Lezlee assured me that she had photos of this feat but she lied.

Here Brennan and I are moving the metal roofing into place, measuring it to make sure everything is square and then installing 150 screws to hold everything into place.




It was a lot of work but it sure looks great! Brennan worked amazingly hard. In addition to all of that he also dug trenches for the plumbing and water lines. This week we hope to have all the block walls fully stuccoed, all the grading done and the pavers installed. Next week the walls get painted and the back wall gets built. Meanwhile the metal artist is building us a custom 6' long fire pit and four-custom gates. One will be almost 10' long and made to look like reeds built out of rebar. Another gate will have a powder-coated baby blue metal panel with a rebar tree growing in front of it. And two more will be a patchwork of metal--kind of a steel quilt. Pretty cool.

Here's some pictures of how the roof looks installed. The light reflects off the pool and dances across the metal roof. And at sunset the warm light hits of the front beam but light goes through the hills of the corrugated roof and makes 30 spots of light on the next beam. It's really pretty. Lezlee has also picked out three of the four paint colors and is madly trying out every color of yellow possible to find the fourth.




Brennan starts wrestling again tomorrow.

Jordan got her Faith In God Award. She had a great birthday this week. She's now 12. I'll let Jordan write about that.

Lezlee is out of town picking up Holden this week so I'm doing a lot of cooking with my favorite kitchen utensil--the telephone. Today was sushi at Motos. It's hard to believe that my picky kids actually like eel! Tonight Brennan and I made shortbread and so I'm missing Scotland.

Now its off to put the little ones to bed!