It was very gratifing to me to start on the pavilion and finally see something stick up in the air. Putting the posts up was reasonably simple, we used the backhoe as a crane and a jig to drill the holes. The main issue was the holes in the 'booties' were 5/8 inch and that was the size of the bolts I got, but actually only 1/2 inch was needed and that would have made life so much easier. Never-the-less most of the bolts when in without too much trouble, though we did have to hammer the crap out of a few and then grind off the smashed threads.

The first few pictures are cutting the tops of the posts in prepration for putting on the metal caps.
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We were using ganged up 16 ft long 2x12s as it was something I felt I could easily manage (as opposed to a single solid beam that would require a crane). The first beam took longer, of course, because I was figuring things out as I went, but the rest went in pretty quickly. We put construction adhesive between each 2x12, then put in a series of screws to hold them together. At least two of the three boards stretched between each post.
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I was comfortable working on top of the wiggly platform and walking back and forth between them, but Eliz wasn't (and I don't think we ever got Caloy up there). We opted to go with 4 ft overhangs on the ends to provide a bit of protection from rain. You can see how we extended the beam out past the post.
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Putting up the rafters. I learned a very valuable lesson here: mark all the rafters all at once before cutting else they all wind up a different length.
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We got fork attachments for the backhoe to use it like a construction forklift. Not quite as nice, of course, but still functional. It sure beats lifting the sheathing, etc. from the ground! We used a plastic-type material instead of tar paper because it handles wind _much_ better than tar paper and because we were sheathing in winter it wouldn't be warm enough to shingle (the shingles need a few days of full, hot sun to melt the tar strips together so they are resistant to wind, doanchano). The plastic was a bit slick, but I didn't feel I had any problems, but Eliz wouldn't go up there after the first time.
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Having the roof for the pavilion has made a huge difference now that the weather has warmed up! It is sure nice to get out of the sun for even just a few minutes, not to mention having a place to put lots of crap (like the skid steer).
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