We’ve been talking about getting a rain barrel, but weren’t exactly in a rush over the summer, since I don’t think it rained more than once after we got back from the beach. But it’s rained a few times now (our grass is green again, hurray!) so we decided it was time. For our first attempt we ordered a ready-made barrel online. We decided to not set up an overflow option for the time being, (we’ll see how that works out…) so installation was pretty straightforward. First Dave took a sawsall to the metal gutter:

We ended up needing an extra trip to the hardware store since the existing brackets pulled out in the process and the whole downspout fell off. Oops… but hammering in new brackets was pretty easy. We got a little flexi spout extender thing:

And a few “retaining wall” bricks to give the barrel a bit more height:

And we’re all done. Here it is in relation to the rest of the house. it’s on the right front corner.

Part of the reason we went with the pre-made barrel was because we knew it would be visible by the rest of the court. I’m pretty impressed with the material. It’s just a solid piece of plastic, but the different finishes make it look decently like a wooden barrel. Maybe if we decide to add more barrels around the house, we can try obtaining a used wine barrel from one of the wineries around here…