Building the platform

Next up was getting the footings in place 

- We set footing molds in the 'post' holes. (These were the cardboard cylinders we purchased at Home Depot)

- filled them with concrete.

- set the footing clamps in the cement.

We are building this structure on a slope so it is very tricky.  The footings are at all different levels - we will achieve a level platform, though, as you will see below:

Preparing the base - I had to remove some remaining debris and landscape fabric.

The plans 

I laid down some fresh landscape fabric and decided to cove the entire ground under the studio with landscape rock:

Then we cut the base legs to various heights for our platform - this is because we are building the structure on a slope so each base leg will be a different height.

The following picture represents about 3-4 hours of work to get the base platform secured exactly level.  In all the pics the base looks very uneven because the ground is uneven.  It is actually 100% level!

This is my new project best friend:  my Ryobi power drill set.  Great deal at Home Depot and the guy tried to upsell us to Dewalt et al but this one does an amazing job!

Mary Tyler Moore presides over all construction from now on.