Welcome to another one of our build series! This one is on our Outdoor Kitchen Build, we hope you enjoy it!

💰 Budget 💰

There's always a budget, right? Of course! For this project, we were working with a very specific budget in mind... our tax refund check which was right at $900 (your welcome, US Govt, for the interest free loan from us for the year). 😒 We wanted to put our tax return toward a tangible project or item so that we could look back later and see where our money went!

I originally began looking at more traditional structures, and even those metal carports (though I didn't like the look of them). The traditional structures, built with smaller dimension lumber, ended up costing more in the long run due to additional hardware and lumber required to make up for the lower load capabilities. The metal carports were a turn-key project, but were over budget by a few hundred dollars once we paid to raise the roof height up high enough.

Money Savings!
I found that purchasing materials from specialty stores actually saved money! For example, lumber from a lumber store, hardware from a "bolts and nuts" store, and roofing from a roofing manufacturer were all MUCH cheaper than from a store like Lowe's or Home Depot! The greatest savings was with the hardware--60% cheaper!

Being an avid DIYer, I sat down to calculate costs and came up with a design that was within budget, but looked good too!

📐 Design 📐

I've always liked timber framed structures. The large posts and beams, and relatively simple joinery just make for a pleasing look. When it came time to design the Outdoor Kitchen, I looked around online to get some inspiration, then dove into Google Sketchup to work out the details. A few days later, and I had this:

Constructed of 6x6 posts, 2x8 beams & rafters, and 2x6 purlins, with minimal joinery and held together with 1/2" bolts. The footprint is right at 12 feet wide and 18 feet long, with a roof coverage of approximately 15 feet wide and 21 feet long.

🚧 Construction 🚧

We started with driving stakes into the ground and running line to get a square footprint and guide to dig our post holes. I used our auger and dug the footer holes 30" deep. We put in the 6x6x12 posts, concrete, added a few brace boards to keep them straight, and let them sit overnight. The next day we measured the height for our first cross beam, notched the 6x6 posts and bolted them together with four 1/2" x 7" galvanized hex bolts, washers, and lock nuts. We used four bolts per joint for maximum strength.

That's it for Part 1, see you on the next post!
@greenacrehome

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