Building a Deck in a Weekend

Saturday morning started with a hearty breakfast of french toast with brown sugar, caramellized bananas and strawberries on top. You know, for a hard day's work ahead.

About 8:30 am we started demolition, the best (and easiest) part! I hope our neighbors don't sleep in.


Bye bye, rotten old wood.


Then it was time to head to Home Depot to spend a little $! At $9 a board, things add up quickly. Not to mention cement blocks, work gloves, screws, level, etc.


Getting the cement blocks level and situated correctly was by far the most time consuming piece. After that was done, the project sped along.

Jonah Bell loves to splash in the kiddy pool like she's a puppy. It's pretty adorable.




This is a HUGE improvement to what was there before.


Basking in new deck glory.

And finally, a toast to the new deck!

And a garden update!

Tomaters are coming! Can you see the baby guys? They just need a little more time and sun.

Cilantro is doing good.

Pot-o-herbs is flourising. We have rosemary, oregano, chocolate mint (hoping to use that in a summery drink) and basil.

I'm so glad we tackled the deck project, even if we were both getting over colds this weekend. I was constantly blowing my nose and drinking water, but we were able to get it done.

We have a list of 5-10 other big projects that we'd like to tackle this summer. We'll see what happens in between my 50K training, weddings and his cycling. Life is busy! I'm just happy we were able to fit in some down time this weekend because I need a little relaxing before heading back to work.

What was the highlight to your weekend?

Comments

Amber said…
The new deck looks awesome!! That is a project we need to take on at our townhouse next summer. This year we want to focus on the bathroom re-do!

How did you guys know what to do when it came to rebuilding the deck (or is this common knowledge) Eric and I have no idea about these kinds of things?? Lol
J said…
Wow busy weekend! Definitely nice to get those big projects done in one weekend! I spent most of saturday and sunday recovering from the wedding I was in on Friday!
The deck turned out great! Job well done! I bet man friend felt super manly during the demolition. :)

The highlight of my weekend was spending time with 2 different groups of college friends. Some I hadn't seen in over a year, and we picked right back up where we left off. I love friendships like that!
Gracie said…
Wow, your deck looks fab! I love the reddish tone - very inviting.
Looks great!! And like a fun place to spend a few summer nights :) Job well done, you two!
Amber- we didn't necessarily have much experience with it, although the manfriend had helped his dad as a kid do various projects. We basically ripped the top boards up and from there followed what had been done underneath to double the size of the deck.

The key to this project was measuring and leveling all.the.time. The cement blocks needed to be level and even with the other ones in each row both ways. Then the supporting beams needed to be level as well and at the same height as each other. And each board needs to be screwed down equidistant from the next so you get a straight deck. I did see a general home projects and deck building step by step book when we were at Home Depot so I'm sure those would go into extra detail about fun projects like this one. :)
Linz said…
WOW, nice job you two! Looks great. Deck building ain't easy.

And the french toast looks doubly good ~ now if only I can get E to make me up a batch for breakfast tomorrow...

Popular Posts