DIY : Windowbox - Winter Projects for Summer Gardening

In addition to the plethora of projects that I have on my plate this winter - remodeling the guest bath, painting interiors,  finishing the kitchen island makeover,  etc... I want to work on a few projects for the coming summer. I planned to make a large window box for the living room window along with a pergola for the grill and several lattice panels for the house.  I am attempting to do this in our basement which is almost like being outside during the winter.

I went over to NY Salvage in Oneonta because I was  looking for vintage brackets to help support the window box.  I found a set of four that will work just fine and now have to reinforce and paint them and build the window box that will rest on them.

The last time I built window boxes was in North Carolina and I put a couple of them outside the upstairs master bedroom windows.  What I didn't know was that the soil I had put in the boxes was filled with Ladybug larvae.  I woke one night with a bedroom filled with Ladybugs crawling all over me and all over the walls of the bedroom. I didn't want to kill them and ended up sleeping in a guest bedroom for weeks hoping that they would all disappear and go back out the windows.