Circle of Thyme Chapel Rebuild

More than just a renovation...

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Last winter, the twiggy gazebo that we called the Circle of Thyme Chapel of St. Francis of Assissi gave up the ghost, and fell down under the weight of snow.

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On a job taking down a fence, the posts were salvaged for the uprights.  These are tuned poles, all around 6" across. 

I painted them all with opaque oil-based stain, to give them a refresh and to make them last a bit longer. 

I'm hoping for at least ten years out of this project.

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The original 'foundation' which is just small concrete forms with a piece of rebar sticking out are re-used.  This might not be ideal, but as long as the bottoms of the posts don't rot (keep them up off the soil level) it should last a while.

The posts are plumbed to make sure they're upright.  Spare lumber is used to keep them that way, these will be removed once the top pieces are put on.

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The top pieces are rough sawn 2x6 lumber from out local family run mill.  It doesn't matter that these are not exactly the right dimension, as they're not for weight bearing - except for the Clematis.

The wood is so dense that it's hard to cut the ends into a decorative scroll using a jig saw, so we went with something that could be cut with a skil saw and a hand saw.

Once we get the top pieces spaced out along the top and lagged into place, the Clematis vines returned to their rightful place scrambling up the uprights, this will look as though it has always been here.

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Stained with the grey to look aged and weathered and completed, it just needs the clematis to recover and climb the chains to cover the top, and provide shade and it's back to where we left off before the collapse of the original gazebo.






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