By the Sunday of our vacation, we had dug the holes for the posts, poured the concrete, painted all the plywood needed to support the roof, and bought most of the wood and materials that we needed and it was finally time to start building.

After Cas took exact measurements to ensure each post would be the perfect height, we lifted them into place and secured them with four five-inch galvanized bolts. We estimated we would need 264 bolts for the total project, which was a challenge to find. We ended up at four different stores throughout the week to collect them all.

Once the posts were in place, we built the support beams that would lay across the three posts. They are made from three pieces of wood, secured together to help accept the weight of the massive trusts and strengthen the entire structure.