It seems we Ehresmann's fancy ourselves contractors, and in light of our new contractor status we built ourselves a little shade structure that we in the contracting world call a pergola. PERGOLA, pronounced PER-GO-LA. Our foreman suggested we document the project for posterity. The team voted, and our efforts can be seen below.

The Architect/Accountant and the Pergola

Our architect spent many sleepless nights contemplating each detail of our pergola design. The first step involved hole digging. We rented gasoline powered post hole augers and the architect and the muscle got to it. Four holes later we paused for the great four holes vs. six debate. The debate lasted nearly 5 minutes. In the end, the team voted, and the rented equipment was returned with four holes dug garnering the team a return of funds as it was early. This greatly pleased our accountant and our buyers. Phase 1 complete.

As work progressed we neglected the photography until this stage. You can see the designer has begun her work despite the structure being incomplete!

The foreman introduced the designer to a handy and versatile tool known as the tea cup hook. They make excellent string light holders in addition to their original use. We used them in the garage too, for hanging levels on the wall!

It was a super fun project to work on as a family. We all had our roles, the foreman (Coleen), the architect/accountant (Curt), the muscle (Karl) and the designer (Crystal). We plan to collaborate on other projects in the future, but for now we are planning to break for the season. We don't figure we're ready for winter labor just yet.