For sometime now, the deck on the back of the house has been in serious need of repair/replacement. It was already needing work back in 1999 when I first moved in. The boards were splitting, splintering, and bowing up. Nails were popping out of the wood every where. I have been so afraid someone was going to trip and hurt themselves on it. It was also a real eye soar.
How does it take so long to get around to fixing this? Every time, the money always went to something else and the deck just kept getting put on the back burner. So, finally back in November we finally had the money for supplies.
Right after Thanksgiving my brother at Empire Masonry started demolition on the old deck. Jon helped him as he could when he was not working.
It took a couple of weeks to complete. There was some rain. Some days he worked by himself because Jon was working. Some days he had other jobs to estimate or do. And some days I think I talked to him too much and kept him from working…lol.
And oh yeah….it was going to be big! Our old deck was tiny. We wanted to add a lot more room. We have a large family and wanted a lot of space for everyone. We chose a design with 2 levels that has a step down. We knew it would be big, but wow it was huge!
There are steps exiting on both sides for convenience. Oreo certainly loves it (after she got over being scared of all the construction hoopla).
The final step, we I wanted the entire under section closed in with a door for access. I just thought it would look nice and dress it up, but it would also provide additional storage if needed as the level attached to the house is quite tall.
But well, this “little” project costed more than we had hoped. We wingled and wangled several different ways to save on materials. They re-used some lumber from the old structure that was still solid. We took some extra materials back for a refund. And my brother cut me a deal. But still we capped out our budget and had not bought the materials for closing it in. We just decided it looked great as it was and later when we had the funds we would finish that. Jon would be able to do that by himself when he had time.
Finally, we were able to squeeze the rest of the lumber into the ole budget. Jon was off Friday and had planned to work on closing in the deck. But of course there was the chicken fiasco Thursday evening so his plans changed and he had to first repair the chicken run and coop door. After getting that taken care of among other “to-dos” on the list, he finally was able to get started on the deck. I think Jon was disappointed he did not get further along than he did, but I am happy with the progress.
I think it is coming along wonderfully and looks great!
