After adding a 40 ft. off white extension cord, it lights up and works!! Taaaa-daaaaah!
Barb Buckley found a bargain. A Craigslist bargain garden arbor, …metal, …filigreed and perfect for her garden, right? Wrong! She had a vision for transforming it and fitting it into her style garden in Michigan, and as is usual with Flea Market Gardeners, …once she started, her project grew! It grew to the size of her imagination.
Barb says, “This is the picture that was on Craigslist, for $50! All the arbors I’ve seen like this start at $1000 and go up to over $2400… at first I thought the $50 was a misprint for $500. She just wanted it out of their yard and picked me from all the other people because I kept emailing her.”
She says, “I bought a dark oil bronze paint and was ready to give it a fresh coat, but my heart wasn’t in to painting it dark.
Three LONG weeks of trying to paint after I got home from work, between the super hot days and the rain showers, the mosquitoes that would not leave me alone, I painted….
“Look where my lawnmower is, the neighbor kept watching my project and wondering WHY my grass kept getting longer….”
These pieces are 8 ft. high, I stood them up so they could dry. First coat of paint was an ivory oil base, then I sprayed them with a can of darker ivory and finally sprayed them with a “hammered” ivory which gives the look I was wanting….
The fun began as I tried to figure how to best put the lights on, this was not one of my successful tries…. ha!
Barb now decided that the arbor would be placed with her pond in the center,…but that needed to be redone. Here’s what she did.
The area I want to place it HAD a plastic froggie pond in it, which leaked, so John Bkly and I pulled it up. I scrubbed the crud off the liner for 2 nights and found where it had cracked. Bought a marine epoxy to repair the area and used 3 cans of the new rubber spray to seal the entire thing!
The pool is upside down and I had already scrubbed the green gunk off. This project has not been fun for days….
Looks better than new after using 3 cans of Flex Seal on it! Now just to hope it stops the leak.
The arbor is up with the help of Melissa Donaldson, Art Davis and John ‘Bkly’, thank you everyone!
I have daffodils in front of the rocks to bloom in the Spring and the lights around the top turn on at dusk and off after two hours, …thanks John Buckley for fixing that! ~~ Barb Buckley
Craigslist is a free site where you search locally in your area for stuff to buy, sell or trade. Started in San Francisco, Craigslist is now International
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What a great score, Barb, and it was so much fun following along virtually while you created this beauty spot. I think your neighbor was admiring that arbor, not worrying about a little grass!