handyman Archives - WNY Handyman

How to Build a Pergola – Step by Step

Who doesn’t love a Pergola. Well, get out there and build your own. The number of plans to build a pergola or trellis, are mind boggling. You can find many paid plans, but we prefer free. In fact, The Family Handyman also prefers “free”. So much so that they offer free pergola plans in their fantastic publication. If you are not a Family Handyman subscriber already, you should head over to your nearest supermarket, take one of the little subscription cards that falls from the magazine when you pick it up and become a new subscriber. Or, you could just head over to their web site. After all, it is only $10 for an entire year.

Enough about my praise of the magazine (I have been a subscriber for more than 10 years) and onto the Pergola project. As you can see, this pergola is perfect to add shade to a patio or pool area. Obviously, the layout will allow for you to be pretty flexible with your sizing.

You should be sure to check with your municipality to be sure that you don’t need a permit for for this. Good luck with your project. The full plans can be found at the link at the bottom of this article.

New Fixer-Upper in Lancaster

We will be starting a new project in about two weeks. It is a home located in a great neighborhood within the Village of Lancaster. The location is fantastic, the house…. not so much. When buying a home to fix, that is what you want… The worst house on the best street.

This home is located in the Village of Lancaster (off Broadway) and is on a street that includes a mix of home styles. There are even a number of older 2 family homes. Our property was built in 1889 and that will have some challenges. There will be some interesting issues to address with a home that was built in 1889. The oldest property that I have worked on was about 1920.

This was a 2 family home until the prior owner got tired of tenants above him and closed off the upper unit. He pulled the kitchen and had it reassessed as a single family home. We are going to do a full conversion to a single family. This will provide some challenges, but I think we will be able to pull off a modern floor plan with some big changes. We are going to combine the current kitchen with a lower bedroom to provide a modern “open” design. After the redesign, we will end up with a 4BR (3up, 1 down), 2 Bathroom home with a modern eat in kitchen. There are 8 1/2′ ceilings on the first floor and this will compliment the open design.

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There are a NUMBER of large issues with this renovation, not the least of which is the foundation work that is needed. This will be a big project, but I feel that we will be working with a great contractor who can get things done quickly and properly. They worked on our office renovation and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the work that was done there. They have a motto “We Show up, Finish Up, Clean Up and Don’t Screw Up”

There are a couple of major repairs needed before we can even get started making this property look nice. There is foundation work required and roof work required. There is water leaking now and that needs to be addressed right away. The foundation is a rubble style foundation and needs to be shored up prior to any major work.

Check back for more as we get into this project. We’ll include some pictures and video as we go along.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

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