When Opportunity Knocks...

You may recall back in February we began the Great Gazebo Quest, our search for a sturdy, functional structure to protect my orchids and make our patio into a usable room. We got a lot of great suggestions from our readers, but we realized for several reasons that this would not be the simple endeavor we'd imagined. I drew up 3 separate plans, which were abandoned in the following order:

1. Commercial gazebos lack the height to provide clearance for the new French doors. With sliding glass, this hadn't been a problem.

2. DIYing a permanent structure got stalled because we haven't decided how Mom's quarters will be accessible to the house. If we build a large, wheelchair friendly deck, that will raise the height of the flooring.

3. The half DIY/half store bought project was scrapped due to the fact that I'm too flipping cheap to Frankenstein a $300 gazebo.

However, on Monday's trip to Target with Sam to pick up nasty dry pet food, I spotted this baby marked from $249 to $125.

Cue the angels.

I quickly took the husband home, grabbed the daughter, and hightailed it back.

 Welcome to Tuesday.

 The Minions cleared the patio in a cheerful manner...

...with Savannah belting out a Disney Princess riff that attracted their woodland friends to help.

(Presenting: Snailio Ingelias in I Shall Leek You!)

 Off with the furnishings and plants.

 This area will be much more delightful with shade.

 Now, onto the serious business...

 ...for obvious reasons.

 Oh dear God.

The bougainvillea got a vicious pruning patio side.

The construction went very quickly. Seriously, this went together in about 45 minutes.

Slight sprinkles did nothing to deter us!

 Torrential rain, however, pared the workforce down to one crazy guy.

 Relax, we let him in. Eventually.

It's water tight too, which was the whole idea.

Now, about that height issue...

We're headed for Home Depot!