Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Metal Gazebos

For starters, why a metal gazebo? Why a gazebo at all. For one, they are just stinking cool. You can't get around it. Your always going to have a bonus to your yard or garden with a gazebo. Why though do we want the metal? Number one reason.....You enjoy being lazy. I do, I'm a put little effort in and get a lot out type of guy. That is exactly what you will get. You just set the thing up and bam....you're done. It takes care of itself. It doesn't require any sort of extra labor. It won't wear out in the weather. With wood you are going to have to do some (though not much) preventative care. We must ask ourselves though. Are all gazebos created equally? No, and what holds true is the old saying, "you get what you pay for" Mainly you are going to find three types of metal used. You got your steel, wrought iron, and your cast aluminum. Those are your typical choices. Each one will have it's own strengths and weaknesses that I'll hopefully cover in another post. Now you can run out and buy a cheap metal gazebo that the neighbors dog snaps the leg on or you can put up something that superman would have to go around the choice is yours. I just want to talk to you a little bit about the reasons you might want a metal gazebo in the first place.

Lets start out with portability. I myself am a person who needs constant change. I don't know if it's that my job has me doing the same mundane nonsense day in and day out or that I just have a low attention span. Either way, I don't like things to be exactly the same all the time. If you find yourself in this boat then one of these bad boys is right up your ally. They are a since to put up and take down. Unlike your wooden gazebos that are much more stationary. A couple of things to keep in mind here about this point. Think of your plants, how well do they transplant? (Don't mind the pun)You may be a mover and a shaker, but your plants might be more of sitters and dwellers. Not that you have to move your plants with your gazebo, you can always just get you some new ones. Don't forget to go back and put something in the empty space left behind, might look a little silly.

Ok, onward and upward. How about up-keep? This is the seller for me right here. There isn't any upkeep. You just assemble and enjoy. How long, as long as you want for many years. The "majority" of you metal gazebos are powder coated with rust proof paint. They are known for lasting, that is why they are a good investment. I can't say enough about their ability to go toe to toe with old man winter and all his not so fair weather friends.

The look....ok, here is where I'm a little biased and have to back off some. I guess it is just my own personal preference but I really like the look of the wooden gazebos better than the metal. The metal can seem a little bit draconian to me. I don't even think I'm using that word correctly. I think I heard it in finance jargon somewhere but it sounds good. Dungeons and castles is what I mean by it. By all means if that is the look and feel you are going for then go for it, me personally though I just like the wood.

An additional note about the weather. The metal gazebo canopy is made with a wind vent to allow blowing winds pass on through and release some of the pressure on the structure. Now I know it isn't "highly likely", but without this feature you could possibly see your metal gazebo blowing down the street.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Best Gazebo Pics

Alright gazebo fans. I've got an idea for this new post. This will require some action on the part of my loyal fan base.....(crickets chirping)....You! You there, yes you don't try to slip out of here. You are going to stay here and help me do this. We have to get this post ready for when the masses show up. How do I know they will show up? Easy, people love gazebos. All shapes and sizes, materials and colors. I want to see the best gazebos from across the globe. I'm going to do my part and take some pics to put up as well. I don't just want pictures that are out there on the internet already. I want there to be backyard shots, park shots, city square shots, wherever you find gazebos. Now I may be getting ahead of myself. I don't even know if people can put pictures on here in the comments as I am new to blogging. If not you can mail your photo to me at figthwriter2@yahoo.com and I will add them to this post. I hope that I can get some good shots up here and I'm hoping for other gazebo nuts to come through and help me get it done. While we are on the topic of pictures online, where do people get their pictures for their sites? Do they buy them somewhere or is there a free source of pictures. I heard something about a website where you can post photos for free and then you get paid for them being downloaded. Have any of you heard of this? I would like to know. I do enjoy taking photos and hopefully my gazebo photos will be up to par. It may take me a little bit to get anything going here because we have like a foot and a half of snow on the ground right now. I think this will be a fun little project and I hope some people will get involved. So that is my challenge to all of you little shutterbugs out there. Get your cameras, and start firing some snapshots at the wood gazebos, the metal gazebos,the hot tub gazebo combos, the cheap gazebos, the fancy gazebos. All of them, just point snap and post. Ok and be sure to come back here for more gazebo fun.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Gazebo News #2

Another gazebo goes down in a world of laws and regulations. What is it about this structure that has forced it to the center of a heated debate in Boston? You can read the other story for yourself at this link. Let me catch you up to speed. One man wrote an article demonizing the state for tearing down a gazebo that some private land owners put up, and this man in the link above says "no, had to go, they were breaking the law." Now friends I can see both sides of this story. I mean, on the one hand, it does seem like a little bit of an overkill and not that big of a deal. On the other hand, like stated in the aforementioned article, you can't pick and choose who gets to obey the law. That leads to simple chaos. I just find it astonishing that so many gazebos get caught up in the crossfire of landowners and laws. I think the gazebo just might be on its way to being the bad boy of the lawn furniture world. No longer will folks, say oh what a nice place they have especially with that gazebo. They will be saying "lock the doors, they've got a gazebo in their yard." Maybe we should ditch the gardens and hot tubs for things like metal sculptures and moats. I've been looking around on the internet for some wicked looking tough guy gazebos but I have yet to find any. Maybe I'm just going to have to build one. One where a man can say "I'm going over to Jim's to hang out at the gazebo." and feel proud. I don't know about you, but with all the bad press they receive, I think it's time they got the image to go with it. Maybe a metal gazebo crafted from old tank parts would be a good place to start. If any of you out their reading this have a Man's gazebo please get in touch with me. We've got to take our backyards back men, lets start with the gazebo. Ok, I just needed to get that off my chest. Don't get me wrong, you can be manly and handle flowers, just make sure you've got a couple of venus fly traps in the mix too. Now get out their and do a Heman overhaul on that gazebo.