Building a gazebo on Vancouver Island

Nathaniel Christopher 5 Comments

This weekend my friend Dave and I worked on a gazebo in his mother’s back yard. When I say “worked” I actually mean “constructed”. His mother lives in a secluded area just north of Nanaimo.

He needed some help with what some of my friends dismiss as “man work” and I enjoy going to the Island with friends.  It was a lot of work which left me pretty sore, but it was really nice to do something constructive with an old friend.

This is Dave’s sketch up of how the pavilion will look when it’s done:

Nestled between a beautiful garden and what will someday be a pond, the pavilion will be a cool place to sit and hang out. The beams are of cedar and the roof will be glass.

We started by drilling some giant holes at the corners of the existing foundation with this big drill thing.

The holes were supposed to be four feet deep, but we decided 3 and a half feet would suffice.


The next step was inserting these 12 foot beams of cedar into the holes.

Once the posts were level we mixed some concrete and poured it into the holes around the posts. It took over one ton of concrete to fill the holes.

After 12 hours we finally finished setting all four posts. Next week Dave and his carpenter friend will finish the roof. I’ll be sure to posts photos of the finished product.

I am a resident of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, who has been blogging here for nearly 25 years. I enjoy sharing my thoughts and feelings on my own online platform. From 1998 until 2017, I worked as a journalist, and I have posted most of my articles in the 'News' section of this website.

5 Comments

  1. That land is native land and it should not be owned or worked on by you and your white relatives who stole it from my people.

    The trees you destroyed for your gazebo belong to mother earth not you.

    If you ever come to Cambpell River I will KICK YOUR ASS!!

  2. Nathaniel, thanks for all your help on this project. There’s no way I would have got it done without you.

    Nice pics BTW.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *