MAJOR PROJECT---DONE!!

I haven't posted in awhile because we've been busy!! We had to replace our old deck, it was over 30 years old, the nails were coming up, the boards were rotting, it was in bad shape. I thought it would be a simple thing to do- take the old boards off, put the nice new Trex decking on!  NOPE!  It turned out to be a 

MAJOR PROJECT!! 

LaVerl started taking the boards off Sept 19th. This turned out to be very hard and time consuming. The boards would not just yank up, no, some had screws in them and when he tried to unscrew them, the heads were stripped. So he had to grind them off and then pull the boards up.

 I tried to help as much as I could. I hauled all the boards to the back and set them where I want to use them to build a really cool tree house!!

 What we found under the deck boards was not good!! The big supporting beams were rotten!! That meant replacing them and having to pull the other supporting 2x6's off by removing all the hangers!  So time consuming!!

 LaVerl was a pretty good sport about all the work.  He'd just work on the deck when he didn't have other electrical jobs.

 After taking out the rotten beams, he replaced them with nice new ones. In the mean time, we had gone to Home Depot and ordered all the new grey TREX. Basically-fake wood. Its beautiful and is supposed to last 30+ years!

 The full length of the outside beam had to be replaced!

 While LaVerl is doing all the hard stuff, I painted all the white plastic lattice the gray color of our trim. I also cut and stapled up a very fine chicken wire to keep the critters from going under the deck.  No more skunks down in our window well!!

 We also painted our white lamp posts black. That's a lot cheaper than buying new ones!

The new beam!

 

 Sometimes when I wanted LaVerl working on the deck, he went fishing with his buddy. I guess that was okay! But really, all day to catch one fish!! (although it was a big one).

 Back to work. LaVerl added more center supports down each middle side.

 Then we oiled/varnished all the old boards.

 LaVerl tried really hard to level everything up. He added a bunch more footings, used a bunch of wood shims, and we strung string across everything checking for high and low spots. After 3 weeks, we were ready for the fun part!

 Oct. 8th--Getting the first board on!!  Yay!!!

Then more boards! Those 20 foot ones were really heavy! I helped LaVerl all day, I did all the pre-drilling, looking for measuring tapes and pencils, and moving electrical cords. We were hoping to get half way before dark! (but we didn't)

 

 We worked until dark the next day,  but didn't quite finish. We have a window well right in front of our back door, which required more work. LaVerl had to build a little hatch door so in case of a fire in our basement, someone would be able to climb out. 

 Finishing up!! 

 We got all the lattice stuff back up and everything cleaned up!

 It was lots and lots of work and time, but we love it! I was really pushing to get this done before winter sets in and WE DID!

We still have to put more Trex up on our balcony off our bedroom!
OK- 2 weeks later--
  When our old deck rotted out, one of our lamp posts that was attached to it fell over in a big wind! So we had to fix the light and then cement it in the ground this time!