The Deck To Date
Here are the rest of the photos of the deck construction so far…
Mostly A Deck
We’re not quite done, but rather than make you wait an indeterminate amount of time, here are a few teasers…
I have about 100 more from start to finish.
Sidenote: due to the massive columns that will adorn the sitting area, Casa Hartman will now be known as Castle Hartman.
All Hands on Deck
The deck is progressing nicely. The basic framing is in place, and attached to the house with temporary supports holding everything up. Tommorrow morning we’ll start by digging and setting the posts, and then we’ll knock out the joists.
I have to run out this evening to pick up a few extra supplies.
Jackhammer Joe
I rented a jackhammer this morning to bust up some of my asphalt driveway to make room for the steps on the deck. Eventually the whole driveway will be replaced, but for the time being, I only took up a piece about three feet square.
After I finished the job this morning, I figured I really could have done it by hand (with a maul and a chisel), but what’s the point of doing house work if you can’t play with big toys every now and then?
Rest assured, I’ve been diligent about taking pictures. I snapped about a dozen before shots of the front of the house from various angles. Rather than spread them out across a bunch of posts, I’ll save them for the final post after everything’s done.
Tommorrow morning I’ll be up bright and early with my wrecking bar in hand to take the porch down. The materials were delivered yesterday, so all that’s left is for Mike to show up so we can get to work.
Cedar Death
Apparently I’m rather allergic to cedar. Sunday afternoon, a day after lugging the ugly cedar from the front yard to the dump, I developed nasty rashhes on my forearms. I’ve been bathing in the benadryl lotion which has helped the itching, but hasn’t done anything for the headache I’ve had for three days or the cough and sore throat I’ve had since Monday afternoon.
Danny Deckchair
I just realized, once the deck is built, I’ll have to find some suitably nice furniture and accessories to adorn it. Joe (from Book of Joe) has found a couple of cool lighting solutions. Umbrella Light #1 and Umbrella Light #2.
Last night I started browsing for chairs… Hmmm… so many choices.
Bushwhackers
As I’ve said before, I truly have the best friends on the planet… how else could I convince one to venture out on a such an ugly Virginia day?
You may or may not recall, but Mike is building my deck next weekend, which meant that I could no longer procrastinate on pulling the bush from the corner of the house. I didn’t anticipate it being a huge problem, but I figured that while I was pulling one, I should plan to pull the others. So yesterday afternoon I called David and asked if he was interested in helping. Thankfully, he said he was happy to do so. We planned to meet early before the heat became too unbearable.
After work yesterday I drove over to Harbor Freight to pick up a tow strap and some chain, figuring I’d just hook the bushes up to the truck and be done with it. Once I got home, I played some poker, but was doing so poorly that I decided rather than sit there and lose I’d start on the work to be done.
My first attempt at yanking the bush at the edge of the court was pointless. I assumed it would be easy, but I was plain wrong, so I got my shovel out and started digging. After a half hour, sweat pouring down my forehead, I called it a night and came in. I was beginning worry that I’d bitten off more than we’d be able to chew. I called David and we decided he’d bring his chain saw and whatever else he thought would be useful four our 8:00 AM rendezvous.
I started digging again around 7:45 this morning and by 8:00 AM, I had the bush loose enough for the truck to pull it out. Hmmm. I wasn’t sure what had changed, but this would be so bad after all. I took a little break and then began to dig out the bush by the corner of the house. Ten minutes later I had it dug completely out. At this point, if I succeeded at nothing else for the day I was happy, since the the bush I had just removed was the only one that really had to be out.
I sat on the tailgate of the truck looking at the cedar I had pruned back last year. I’ve always hated that tree, but I wasn’t sure what to do about it. As I sat there, I thought to myself that if David was up for it, we’d just cut it down today. So, when he arrived a few minutes later, I asked how ambitious he felt and let him in on my thoughts.
(Here’s a quick overhead of the yard to get an idea of what we were working on. The smaller circles are the bushes, and the larger circle is the cedar tree we cut down.)
He went right to it while I began working on the bushes around the side deck. In just a few minutes he had the tree cut down and laid out in the court. He then came over and helped with the deck bushes.
An hour and half later we had all five dug out and pulled. Once the roots were loosened up, the truck made quick work of it. We loaded the truck with the seven bush stumps and the tree that had been cut down and off we went to the dump.
The plan for the rest of the afternoon was to remove a brush pile that David had accumulated at his house. Two trips later, his pile was gone short of some leaves and twigs. On the way back from our second trip we stopped at Bruster’s for ice cream cones. It was nice to finally be able to help him out in some way after all he’s done for me over the last year.
Oh… of course, I didn’t take any real before pictures, so you’ll have to refer to last year’s post to get an idea of before. As for after… well, here you go.
So there you have it, the most recent project done and now I’m really looking forward to next weekend… the deck is going to make a huge impact on the front of the house.