Since our new deck is going to be our outside kitchen, I decided it would be ok to hijack the kitchen remodel blog to post our progress.

First, let's take a walk down memory lane to recall what the old deck looked like. It was small and low:

(we can't forget about the Mary statue)

And you can take our word for it, it was very unsafe! Up close, you can see how yucky the deck is. Also, the surrounding foundation looks like it has mold or lichen growing on it. Neither are that appealing. (yes, yucky is a technical term.)

Two summers ago we embarked on the task of replacing rotten siding and repainting then entire backside. This photo is midway through the process.

In June, while Jasper and I were in Kalamazoo, Drew ripped down the old deck. It was a big job, but he put his engineering mind to it and got it done in a fairly methodical way. In the process we discovered that the deck was original to the house, over 30yrs old, and not well attached to the house. The original design did not have a water drainage plan, so water pooled up against the foundation and made the now exposed foundation look bad. Thankfully, it's all superficial, and we're going to raise the deck up to the door height so it will cover all the unsightliness of the previous deck.

On Saturday, August 25th, Yobany and Denise came over to help us on deck work. Denise hung out with Jasper, while Yo, Drew and I dug the 2' x 2' x 16"deep holes. On two out of the three we hit big rocks that jutted into our hole space. We left them in place and just dug out around them the best we could. Drew then built box liners for the cement slab tops and took off for Home Depot with Jasper to pick up the cement.

Drew called me from HD to tell me he'd have to buy 12 - 80lb bags of cement. It didn't really sink in what that meant. That meant a 1/2 TON of cement. And as you might expect, our Pasat does not have a payload of a half ton. So Josh Benefield graciously offered to go to HD w/ Drew on Sunday to pick up the cement in his pick-up. I don't even remember how many bags they bought - but it was around a half ton. (After this project, I have a new-found appreciation for pick-up trucks. Our 4-Runner's payload is 300lbs.)

Drew poured himself into getting those slabs done during the week, and on Monday night he had blown through 4.5 bags on ONE HOLE and knew he'd need to head back to HD for more. He borrowed another truck from a coworker (Cha-Cha) on Tuesday and picked up more cement after work. He worked hard pouring holes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights - working even when it was dark so that we could keep the project going. The only reason he didn't work on Wednesday was that it was my night to take a break from Jasper 24-7, and I went to see "Becoming Jane" with Kathryn. It also rained that night, so he wouldn't have been able to pour cement anyway. By the end of that week, we were both spent.

This is how the back of the house looked two weeks ago after the three cement slabs were poured.

On Labor Day weekend we made progress, but there was such little visible progress that it was depressing. We worked on getting the two ledgers lined up and hung. We used a water level and rented a hammer drill to drill into the foundation. After poor naps on Friday, Jasper napped well on Saturday and gave Drew and me a good amount of nap time to work outside. He even came and hung out in his stroller in the backyard for about 40 min while we tried to finish as quickly as possible. We didn't finish before he got fussy and had to work under the pressure of a crying son while we wrapped up. Of course, it's not advised to try and use a water level when under pressure. It isn't a tool that's meant for speed.

Last weekend, Andy and Kathryn came over to help with the deck. Andy and Drew made really great progress! It was such a huge help to have them here. Andy and Drew got both beams hung and level:
They finished putting epoxy into the holes in the foundation and got all the bolts into the holes and then got both ledgers firmly attached to the house:
Andy hauled all the joists from the garage to the backyard (2"x8"x16") and helped Drew line them all up.
Drew then attached all the joists to the ledger.

And in the end, it really looks like a deck is just going to drop down on this surface. :) Our neighbor Dean came over to inspect the progress on Saturday and said "Wow!" We still have about 5 joists to hang, and I think we might try to knock that out tonight.

The overall dimensions are going to be 20' x 16'. It should be considerably more accommodating of a group of any size than the old one. How that old deck could accommodate more than one person, working around the three trees in the middle, is a mystery to me. We're excited about the prospect of being able to really use our back yard now with a more functional and safe and more aesthetically pleasing deck. Won't you come over to check it out?

More updates to come, as work progresses ....