My first retirement project was the construction of a deck on the front of the house.
You can view the development of the deck through a series of blog posts found here.
My second project was building a bench out of some remaining deckwood.
My fourth project was to upgrade our "smart home". This project included installing security cameras, and implementing a Home Assistant server. A lot of work went into this project without any photos to share.
Yesterday I started my fifth project, a complete redesign of our backyard pergola. Our backyard had a pergola when we purchased the home in 2003.
After a while we removed the jacuzzi and expanded the patio area where it was previously located.
But after 25+ years, the original pergola was worn from the weather and termites. So it was time for it to go.
Our first step was to relocate the couches and plants from the patio area to other areas in our backyard. You never really know how much of anything you have until you need to move it and this axiom applied for our patio. I underestimated how many potted plants we had.
I also had to move the decorative "window" we had on the patio. This window is the original dining room window from our house that was removed during the remodel 10 years ago.
The next step involved removing the existing light fixtures and outdoor speakers. By the way, the Infinity speakers in the wooden boxes still sound great after 25+ years so if you are looking for some outdoor speakers, you might want to check out this brand.
The next step involved removing the existing lattice and beams. I used a sawzall and impact driver to remove the screws and wood.
I used the miter saw to saw up the wood into smaller pieces. I chopped up the boards that had less termite damage into cubes for use when we burn small fires in the solo stove on the front porch.
We burned some of the remaining wood in the larger backyard fire pit that night.
We have enough scrap wood for at least 7 more fires. As always, Jack supervised the work taking place.
