My Memorial Day weekend project

[soberups]

In my back yard there sits (a) a rotten deck and (b) a pile of fresh lumber.

By the time the weekend is over, I plan having (a) a fresh deck and (b) a pile of rotten lumber instead.

Its gonna be an expensive summer. We paid about a grand for the deck lumber, and as soon as the weather cooperates we will be spending another six grand to paint the house, paint the metal roof, and replace/paint all of the gutters. Ahhh, the joy of home ownership. At least I have a cash-starved teenager to exploit as slave labor on the deck this weekend!

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[dilligaf]

The perils of living in such a humid climate. We have a deck that needs to be replaced as well but it's going to have to wait for some time. No money for it right now.

 

[soberups]

To make things even more interesting, most of the screws holding the decking down were too rusty to remove so we had to cut the old deck apart with a Skil saw and pry the screwed-in remains off of the joists with a crowbar. Plus I have to install cripple joists, because the original deck boards were 2x8x16's and I am replacing them with 2x6x8's since I dont have any way to legally haul 16 foot lumber in the back of a truck.

This project serves as another reminder to me of why I chose to pursue driving rather than carpentry as a career.

 

[moreluck]

When our kids were little, I took them back East for a few days of visit with grandparents and hubby built a gorgeous deck on the house while we were gone. It was a great project for him and it came out great and added value to the house..

Last year he painted our house.....(a one story) for under $1000 and the pros wanted $10,000. Big savings! He couldn't have done it if it was a 2-story home.

Teenagers are great "to use" and they learn for their own future home ownership. . . . . and they are easily bribed.

 

[soberups]

Its a definite improvement!

 

[rod]

Nice work. I've had a very fulfilling weekend so far. With the Patriot Guard I helped put out about 3,000 flags at the local VA cemetery last Friday Saturday I had a relaxing day around the yard and went to the local dirt track for a special modified car race. Today I was back out to the VA cemetery with the Patriot Guard to stand a flag line for a couple of hours while the Memorial Day ceremony was going on. Back to the dirt track this evening for more racing and Monday we do the family get together to visit our loved ones at the cemetery. I even managed to sneak in a few beers (at the race track).

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

Sober, very nice work.

I noticed you had some green stuff on the lower part of the side of the house. You can get rid of that by diluting some bleach, scrubbing it and then hosing it off before you paint the house later on this summer.

 

[rod]

Its a definite improvement!

So when do you do the railings? My wife would want fancy railings with seats built into them and flower boxes and little shelves for nick-nacks etc,etc, etc. (And the fancy new deck furniture would cost way more than the deck materials .

 

[dilligaf]

Very nice Sober! Are you gonna leave it 'au naturale' with clear seal or are you gonna stain it?

 

[gman042]

Looks like your project turned out much better than mine. I was supposed to reconstruct my waterfall in the backyard. The one that my wife swore was leaking which, when I tore it done showed no indication of a leak. I told her it was evaporation that was making the water level drop. Anyway....beyond frustrated....not looking at it again today.