I've been bothering Lisa to get a hobby. I've even offered to share one of mine. Joking, I suggested woodworking so that we could rebuild the arbor. She took me seriously.
The first arbor we built out by the pool was made of cedar and had tall, stately semicircular arches put together with biscuits. The arches themselves held up reasonably well, but there were two design flaws. First, there was not enough stability built into the span. I soon found myself going out in the spring and adding a metal brace here and there to keep the top together in the north-south direction. Second, it was made from cedar, which had a nice finish and was easy to work, but which didn't hold up well at the top of each post. A couple of years ago we took the whole thing down.
This new arbor was simplified and we knocked it out weekend before last. We have 2x8 across the span, 2x6 parallel to the walk, and 4" lag screws to hold everything in place. It wants to rack just a little in the east-west direction so we'll be adding some 45° braces. Overall however it's very sturdy. We are still debating whether it gets a coat of opaque white stain after it dries out.
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