The Deck Revealed

I have decided that procrastination on my part needs to end. I have come to this conclusion after everyone I am running into is asking me if I still have a gaping hole in my house!! No, we don't, Paul has been hard at work and doing an exceptional job of building the new deck. It is complete! I can now walk you step by step through the process.

Let me remind you all of what we started with. You will remember that I wasn't able to get a good "before" picture because I came home to the surprise of demolition. So, I have scoured the archives and found this one from when we first moved in (look beyond the Wiggles tent, and forget about the shabbiness of the yard, we have made vast improvement over the last 4 years).Then we had the shrubs removed, back door removed and deck removed.That very night, with the help of two stellar neighbors, the new door was in and weather proofed (oh, did I not mention before that the old one had NO weather proofing! That meant we had some water damage that had to be addressed). The new door looks better, slides better, has blinds in the glass that I adore, and it was 3 inches deeper than the previous. So we ended up having to tear out all the inside corners and drywall along with cutting back the kitchen flooring to make room.

Paul took the next week off of work so that he could have some therapeutic building time! However, he picked the worst week of weather to do so! The next two days it was raining and snowing non stop- so we finished up all the drywall, trim and paint work in the kitchen. We decided to finish off the door opening in wood instead of drywalled corners. Then we had to re-due the base boards and that ballooned into re-trimming the garage door as well. Lots of unexpected work but I am very pleased with the final product.

Next, Paul continued to brave the elements outside and started digging the 3 foot holes for the concrete footers. This is always backbreaking work, especially when you have all the roots from the bushes and rocks in the way. He labored like a champ and they turned out perfectly for supporting the post of the decks framework, as well as going up under the cement pad. I didn't get a photo of just the footings, but you can see the posts bolted to them in these photos. I hope that you notice his pride and joy- how he notched out the 4X4 posts to except and support the framework. Beautiful design executed to perfection. It is also lag bolted to the house and all the cross beams are bracketed in place. He framework is so great- it feels so solid with zero movement- leaps and bounds better than the old one that was so wobbly and pulling away from the house.He then cut and created the stair risers. I would equate this to cutting crown molding! It just messes with your brain- but as always Paul figured it out and cut them without making a single mistake, each tread and rise perfectly spaced- I was so proud!

We decided to go with Trex decking. LOVE it!! It looks great and it will never give little bare feet slivers and will never need maintenance. It was more expensive but I really feel it is worth every penny.After all that, Paul's week off work was up and he had to go back. While progress was put on hold for a week the girls LOVED that new deck. They decided it was a perfect stage for doing dance performances and plays,oh, and jumping on it is fun too!Last Saturday it was finally time to create the railing system. Again, I love his design and execution. This time we went with Redwood (the post are as well) and I like the color with the decking. Then we just capped off the post and we were done!This project looks simple, but it was A LOT of work! So many cuts, so many screws, so much math and brain power!!! Paul once again did a fabulous job! See, I told you I never have to worry when he decides to rip things apart- just like always it is 100 times better than before.

We are so in love with our new deck that we decided to make it the back drop for the Mother's Day photo this year.

I am so happy with the wide steps and size of the landing- exactly what I wanted! I think Paul would sleep on it, if only it would stop raining!!!