Garden Arbor Construction, Part 1

Liz and I both scheduled a half day on Friday, with the goal of getting all our arbor materials ahead of the weekend. In addition to that, we needed to rent a power augur. We figured if we could get all this settled Friday, we could hit it early Saturday morning – and just go to the backyard and get to work.

First stop: Menard’s, which has a nice lumberyard to choose from.

Looking up and down. We ended up going with pressure treated lumber, and did most of our shopping along the west side of the yard.

Inside the large warehouse, which was a little surreal to drive into with our van.

We got 5 bags of gravel, and 14 bags of concrete. I didn’t believe the online calculators, but in hindsight I think we definitely didn’t get enough concrete.

Finding the smaller bits of lumber we need, for some cross braces and for the lattice.

Funny story: we learned that Home Depot carries power augurs. But all their tool rental is on a first-come, first-served basis. No reservations. So if we wanted to rent a power augur for a day, we had to roll the dice for this afternoon.

If we rented it mid-day (say, 1PM), a 24 hour rental would require us to stop and return the tool. Which means less time working in the morning. So we had to hope our luck held, and waited until we were leaving Menards to call a nearby HD store.

Liz was sitting in the van while I went inside to update our ticket. As I walked back to our vehicle, I called up a nearby Home Depot – asking about the power augur. The guy said they had one available, but also wanted to know if I had called a few moments ago. When I said no, he told me someone else had called not 10 minutes ago, asking about the power augur.

I hurried my step back to the van, thinking that we were now in a race to get to the power augur. As I told Liz what the Home Depot guy said, she laughed at me. And said she had just called, asking about the power augur, and that other person was here.

I still sped a little bit, to Home Depot.

Near the checkout counter at the tool rental, I saw this fun stamp.

The one man power augur, an 8″ drill bit, as well as an extender.

We shopped for a long while at Home Depot, after getting the rental in the van. And by the time we were all loaded up, it was close to 7:30 PM. We both had expected to be home and done, closer to 5PM.

We hit Friday traffic, which made for a slow going journey back home. Where we then had to unload the van, then drive back to U-Haul to drop off the van, and then get back home. All told I think we got home and had dinner closer to 9:45 PM.

A long day, and longer than we planned. But we’re ready to go for tomorrow.

Related:
Garden Box Construction, Part 1