Two years ago I designed and built our sukkah—a wooden frame connected with metal brackets and bolts, 8 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 7 feet tall. The sukkah was designed with the intention of adding to it in stages, allowing each year to bring with it some new elements. Last year the addition was a wooden floor. This year, with a growing family and a memory of slight claustrophobia from last year, I decided to spend some time and resources to expand it.

The beauty of this idea is that the sukkah lends itself easily to expansion. It is almost modular in design, so adding another section was not hard to plan or to implement. I expanded the size to 14 feet by 8 feet, basically by shifting out the back wall and adding another section of boards to the center. The biggest issue I had was figuring out what to do for the new central poles in the structure. After playing around with some ideas and finding out what brackets are available, I decided the best approach was to use 2x4s instead of the 2x2s I have used for the rest of the sukkah.

I also decided this year to add some real walls to the sukkah instead of using reed fencing. My plan originally was to add some canvas walls, and I have to say, they look pretty good. We bought canvas painter’s drop cloths at Home Depot and grommets from Wal-Mart and made walls that let in light and are not hard to store. My friend Israel took apart the reed fencing so that we could use the reeds for the roof to help support the tree limbs. With a piece of carpet acquired from Freecycle and my hardwood floor from last year, the sukkah was complete!

I am thinking about putting together a How To guide for the sukkah design. If I did, would anyone be interested in using it?

Labels: Holidays, Judaism, Sukkot