[dropcap type=”circle” color=”#ffffff” background=”#ef7f2c”]H[/dropcap]ere’s a few pictures of what I’m currently working on – a timber framed, mortise and tenon joined pergola over a cedar deck, with an attached wire panel fence and supported pergola. The posts and beams for the main structure were 6″ X 6″ tight-knot cedar, purchased in Issaquah, WA. As the images show, I used a drill, rasp, and mortising chisel to rough-out and then refine the inverse shapes. The tenon was scored by hand using a circular saw and then finished off with a chisel. The mortise was sculpted using first a large augur bit and then fine-tuning it with the chisel and the rasp. The rasp, in this instance, is a valuable tool – it acts as a rough file, for those who are unfamiliar with the tool. You can run it back and forth along the wood, almost like a very coarse sandpaper, to take flat planes off squarely. Building a project depends in part upon having the right tools to do what you want the product, in this case wood, to do.

The entire project was built using simplistic, modern joinery. The lines are meant to run into each other at perpendicular angles, and are intended to collapse from a 6X6 square beam to a 2X2 trim piece, contrasting the top of the fence’s pergola with the beams.

Each piece of wood received an initial coat of Penofin transparent oil stain. The bottoms of each buried post were stained and then coated with roofing tar where it would make contact with the ground, to keep out the incessant Seattle rain.

Above the deck we installed polycarbonate roofing to allow rain protection while maintaining the northern light into the house’s studio space.

I’m finishing off this coming week with a side Pergola and a paver pathway from the patio around to the deck – we’re also building a garden shed around the back of the house. I’ll update this post with some pictures as we complete the project.

-r

Update (03/10/13): I’ve completed the project and I’ve updated with some final pictures of the paver path, side pergola, and the garden shed. The cedar siding for the garden shed was purchased at the Seattle REStore, thus recycling and reusing a product that may have otherwise been thrown away.