Arbor, gate and fence

With the pizza oven and patio wrapping up,  it was time to fix all the damage I did to the lawn and regrade a few problem areas.  I rented a small stand behind skid steer and it worked well.

Since I was laying out all that money I figured I'd also rent the post hole attachment and dig holes for a fence and arbor (next years project). 

Turns out it was the wrong auger and I had to improvise an adaptor between the auger and the power head. Holes all were dug and patio blocks were placed as caps. We had a rain the next day and it became clear that the fence and arbor would be a sooner project rather than later.

Had some wonderful ideas on how to build it and they got shot down by my lovely bride.  She wanted low maintenance - and insisted on Vinyl.  I looked around the internet and found some really cool arbor kits but they were super expensive.  I downloaded the assembly manuals for a few and figured out how they were built and designed my own.  I found all the parts at Lowes and Home Depot except for the rafter ends.  The sides were a bit of a challenge - the top part is a deck rail section with shortened ballusters and the bottom rail is part of a gate kit.   I also used a gate kit to turn a section of fence into a gate.

Here it is all completed expect for the gate.  It turned out quite well if I say so myself.

Here is another view from the street - it was a challenge to make the fence appear at one level as the yard slopes slightly back.