Oh dear, I've been neglecting the Blog .... I must plead 'pergola fixation' among other things. Staying with the pergola theme - as described, we ordered and collected the oak some time ago. Well, we actually started construction work about three weeks ago - beginning with measuring up and then digging the first of the eleven holes for the big 3 metre posts ... these had to be quite deep, about 0.75 metres, and into very dense clay - so thick that you could make pots with it: We started with the centre two posts on one side to then take a height and plumb line across to the other posts, as the ground has various sloping areas. We placed a bed of gravel with a centre stone in each hole and then placed the post .... quite tricky to manoevre, as each post is about 40 kilos. Once in place, in went the concrete mix; and after double-checking the position was correct then wooden supports were fixed to ensure it would stay in place: - and this process then progresses from post to post: Well I don't want to induce 'pergola boredom' - heaven forfend ... so, I can report that yesterday the main pergola was complete ... with all the cross-pieces in place and bolted and, miraculously, it appears that the structure is only some 2 centimetres 'out of true' when checking the alignment from post 1 to post 11. Hoorah! The next thing will be to mount the shade sails for the central section and roof the side two sections with the brushwood panels; and plant climbing plants around the edges. After this we'll build the oak fencing along the swimming pool front and bring that in to merge with the pergola. En avance .....
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AuthorSimon lives at Nichoir, Le Bruel, with his wife Noella. They moved here in May 2013, with their Newfoundland dog, Oska, and their cat, Snufkin. Together they have set out on an adventure to create what they hope will be home from home for family and a rather special Chambres D'Hotes for guests. Categories
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Simon & Noella Mauger, 'Nichoir', Le Bruel, 81340 Lacapelle Pinet, TARN, France
info@sho-shin.net
info@sho-shin.net