August 28, 2014

Rebuilding the Deck- Part 3


We're going to have to rename this series "The Longest Deck Build Ever."  If you recall the plan was just to build an addition to our deck, and reface the entire thing so it looked consistent, but instead we had to tear down the old one to save it from prehistoric-sized ants and then rebuild it.  After a few months without the deck, in the most beautiful weather Minnesota can see, we decided that the most important thing was to get the old portion of the deck usable again.  So we hung the ledger board for the expansion, which you can see extending out in the photo below, and then got to work with the new deck boards. 


We used composite decking with hidden under-mount screws.  While it wasn't hard, it was a pretty tedious process of laying in the dirt and screwing on the boards from underneath.  I aligned the boards with a spacer, and occasionally had to pull or push the board to get it into just the right spot before the Hubs screwed it in. 


While we took turns with the "below the deck" job, I seem to only have photos of the Hubs looking tough under the deck.


And me looking pretty lame sitting on top of it.



I did, for the record, assist him with handing down beer occasionally, which is a pretty important part of the project ifIdosaysomyself.


When we were a little over half way complete, the boys woke up from nap to discover that their dance floor had magically reappeared, so we took a dance break to celebrate.  It included a little of this...


And a little of this: 








Which is a perfect representation of my kiddos.  One who loves a stage and is always putting on a performance, and the other that charges head on exuberantly into life.  By the end of the day we happily completed the refacing of the "old deck" and it was amazing.




Sure, the rough ends are uncut, there are no railings and there are no stairs.  But there is space to dance, drink a cup of coffee and grill a burger, and that's all that really matters, right?



It felt like such a major hurdle to get to this stage, I'm going to ignore the fact that this looks like a pretty sorry after photo.  It's going to look amazing when it's all done you guys- you're going to have to trust me on this one.

3 comments:

  1. It's coming along! The progress must feel great. May I ask, where did you get the composite decking from?

    P.S. the windows on that 3 season porch are interesting! I've never seen any like that.

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    1. We ordered our decking from Menards, (and waited for one of their 11% off weekends to get the best deal.) The louvered windows of the screened in porch are certainly "interesting." On one hand they allow us to close off that room from the elements when we need to, while still being able to open them and get total air flow when we want it. So they're really functional, but not very attractive. We haven't agreed on anything yet, other than that project can wait a bit in the priority line. ;)

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    2. Those are "jalousie" windows, I had them in an apartment in Hawaii. They are more common in tropical and subtropical climates.

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