Michelle and I started off the day by visiting J&W Lumber in El Cajon. The staff at J&W helped us with a lot of questions during our front porch project so we decided to work with them again on the pergola.
I had a quick conversation with the sales manager about my design. I confirmed I could get the beams in the lengths I need and we had a really good discussion about how much overhang I could have on one corner without running into issues. I think we will use a couple of knee braces to help support the overhang. I'll post an image from Sketch Up showing our latest design.
My next steps is to create a materials list for the items we will buy from J&W. They have a flat delivery fee so I might as well order everything at once. I plan on putting together an order tomorrow.
Once we returned home, I finished some sanding and painting. Our pergola design uses the existing four posts, and requires one more. Yesterday I cut the new post to the length we need. Today I drilled the holes required to mount the post in the bracket, wire a light on the face of it, and bolt the beam to it once we get to that point in the project. I put two coats of primer paint on the wood. The primer paint is extra thick and will fill in all the little holes that were the result of the pressure treating.
I'll probably put one or two more coats on tomorrow.
The next step involved sanding and prepping the existing posts. I removed the remaining screws and bolts and patched the holes with wood putty.
