Tuesday, September 8, 2015

All decked out

   The deck is painted. I bet it has been four years or more since I tackled this job. I hadn't planned on this being my Labor Day plans, but since the house got painted early and they powerwashed the deck, it made sense to jump in. How could I have a nice, new house, and an old, ratty deck?
   As usual, it was way too hot: 94°, with high humidity, and a high heat index. I deck doesn't get a lot of shade, so it is challenging to endure the weather to get the work done. It took 28 man-hours to complete; I worked 20 hours between Friday and Sunday, and Bryan was able to help for 8 hours. I was so thankful to have his help, especially for painting around the verticals.
   Here are a few in progress shots in reverse order, which show how badly this work needed to be done.
   We spent yesterday afternoon shopping for supplies for the next big job: replacing the downspout system on the north side of the house. And then last night we dug the trench along the house and under the deck, for the PVC drainpipe. I spent two hours under the deck on my hands and knees, diggin an 8 foot trench for the 4 inch pipe. Even for me it was a tight squeeze to avoid hitting my head on the joists. And it started raining almost as soon as we had finished, as if to test our work.
   The last part of this job is using soil to fill in and properly grade under the deck, and then filling in with all of the rocks I have collected in bins in my garage and on the side of my house. I pulled all the rocks out of the flowerbeds around the deck when I bought the house nearly 11 years ago. They've been waiting all this time to be put to good use!
   If the rocks prevent the area from getting muddy, I'm not going to replace the lattice. The dogs have been tearing it down bit by bit over the years, to get at animals that were hiding under the deck. This will give the dogs a place to escape the sun and the rain, too.
   I'm so excited about my "new" house and my "new" deck!

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