After a few scorching summers on our South facing back patio, we came to the conclusion that we needed a shade structure. We were lucky enough that Kevin had a contact that he worked with in Montana who supplied reclaimed lumber. Reclaimed lumber is wood that has been salvaged from old warehouses and may have been floating or sunk under water for decades. We liked this wood for its character and its eco-friendliness. Along with Kevin’s architect James, who came up with the great design, we had the whole structure milled and the steel plates fabricated up in Montana.

After sitting around in the shop in Billings for a while, the weather cleared and Kevin did us the huge favor of renting a trailer and dragging it down to Colorado and we got it set up.

TIMBER!

The shade structure consists of a lot of big wood. the support columns were 8×10, and some of the extensions were over 20 feet long. That’s some heavy wood! The first step was to stand up the posts (9 feet tall) that sit on some steel footings we had mounted on the patio.

First Post

Then we had to get the main long beams installed. We had Tom and Mike (who recently helped us with our landscaping) come by for a few hours in the morning to add some muscle.

It took all of Josh, Kevin, Mike, Tom and I to get those long beams up to sit on top of the posts.

King of the scaffolding?

After the long posts were up (with no injuries), we put on the large cross beams. Once that was done, the heavy lifting was done and we had a beer!
Posts and Beams

almost dark

Kevin and I then mounted the 4×6 cross beams and the 4×4 extended beams on top of that and we were done with the main construction.

Finishing Touches

Next step is to electrify this structure with some sconces and a ceiling fan for hot summer days. Mandy might also put up some shade curtains to soften this up a bit. But the hard work is done and the structure looks just amazing! More pictures to come when we have the space a little more finalized.