One step at a time..

Randy chose his next project and it is one I am very grateful for and one that I am helping on.  New deck steps!

I’m not sure that the last steps were ever intended to be permanent, what I do know, they were steep and narrow and I hated going down them with an arm load of anything!

Saturday was demolition day and the day that we built the new landing.

We worked all day to get the framing done and the new posts in place.

By the end of our work on Sunday we had a landing with decking and a step!

Randy says he’s going to add another piece to the first step since the dogs might skip it if it’s to small. The area between the two post will be where the new steps go.  This week weather permitting we will keep moving forward!

Boxes, brackets and of course Cooper..

The weekend started with delivery of our new deck furniture in two big boxes.  Of course things couldn’t be smooth and easy and we are missing two complete sets of hardware for two chairs and the light fixture’s battery compartment is cracked so I’ll be making the call on Monday for the replacement parts.  We like the furniture a lot though it’s consider counter height, so it’s a little taller and instead of looking at the rails I can see over them.


Randy decided to work a little more on the glider since we had the replacement brackets.  He got it all assembled and it works but it sits very low without the bend in the bracket like the original.  So in addition to needing to unbend some bends in the metal, now he needs to bend the new brackets.  Still it’s a piece of my family history, dings and dents included!

Cooper continues to grow, though he seems to have no idea how big he is.  He is a continual source of joy with his playtime with Ally and his sleeping positions.

Deck progress!

We have a deck!

Last weekend Randy worked on Saturday but not Sunday.  He worked a couple nights during the week and this weekend he was planning to work the entire weekend.  Mom Nature sort of chuckled and that and she dumped some rain on his parade.  So on Sunday to make up for lost time, he worked from around 9 till oh 7:30 p.m.!  The above shows all the beautiful progress.

They say the devil is in the details and Randy has had a devil of a time with some of them.  The cut around the downspout,

The cuts around the hot tub.

The placement of posts and the angle of the Ipe edge, additional blocking for specific boards were challenges that he faced and I think mastered beautifully!

 

What’s left?  Well to create the access panel for the hot tub.

Plus staining and rails are left to be done.  We are getting close and with the last two I’ll actually be able to help!

It’s almost July????

I can’t believe it’s the end of June already, where is the summer going?  Oh wait we haven’t had summer yet!  Rain yes, we’ve had rain…

Seems like just about every weekend it rains which means the deck is still where it was…

But the lumber did arrive yesterday so hopefully progress will start in between rain drops.
Zoe has just been hanging out..

Waiting for the rain to stop so she can spend some quality time outside.  I’m with her on that, I’ve got weeds to pull, rock to spread, mulch to put down, deer fence to put up and, and, and…
We are still searching for a new family member!  We are going big because you know we love big dogs!
Our niece arrives this weekend and we are going to have fun, fun, fun!  We’ve been waiting since last summer for her to come back!!  Stay tuned

All Decked Out…

So it started off like this.  Get a dumpster to clean up all the scrap wood, the junk the stuff that is just too big to take to the dump. Most of it was from Randy cleaning and rearranging the work shop.  Well they brought it, we put stuff in it, but it was nearly full enough, so Randy got an idea, which means trouble!
The deck needs to be replaced, the boards are old, the nails are popping up, etc. and we’ve talked about making changes to it.  So imagine my surprise when he informs me he’s ripping out the stairs to the deck!

His grand vision is to add on a 6 x 8’ section to ‘expand’ the seating and cooking area.  I keep pushing for an outdoor kitchen but he’s not buying that lol!  A new post and some new headers will have to be put in place.

The new stairs will go here, he was using the old stairs (that were cut in half mind you) to get an idea of where he wanted them.

This area gets pushed out, the grills get moved out from the wall. He’s talking about a lattice screen at the end for privacy and some sort of weather protection over head.

The table will be moved away from the wall and he swears that it’s not that hard.  That’s good to know because it’s going to be done a lot sooner than he might be thinking lol!

Framing complete.

This weekend we completed the framing on the new deck.



Now we are ready for the decking. We are going to use Ipe; here are a few boards we "acquired" from a good friend. They are just loose so we can see how they are going to look!

Deck Demolition

Well the demolition has begun...





Yes, we labored right through the Labor Day weekend and managed to get all the old decking ripped up and six sheets of new subfloor put down.




No, these aren't the nails we are putting in, they are all the ones that we had to pull out! Just about every board was pulled up leaving the nails behind, the 3 foot pry bar was the only way to get them out!

This weekend the old gazebo deck must go!

Hopefully we'll be ready for the materials delivery come Wednesday (9/12)...