Last year the wife wanted to change the deck up, screen in the gazebo and generally fix up the exterior of the house. The painting of the house I outsourced, but after the first few bids on the deck project I said "I should be able to do that myself...."
It took a while, mostly because it was the wife's job to paint everything but she finished that up today. So I give you, deck 2.0:
Before:
And how it sits today:
She wanted "wrap-around steps" and I wanted to be able to still drive vehicles past the deck (and there is a big tree out of frame that we didn't want to touch). I also wanted the steps a constant width, something that I couldn't seem to explain to dad very well so I just framed it up myself and he saw my vision about half way through. The idea of having the finished edge came to me about half way through framing so I had to go back and add in a whole bunch of extra little bits to make that happen. I see why if you're paying for the labor that you wouldn't do that.
That oh-so-80s style line / border is everywhere:
The whole thing is screwed together, not a single nail anywhere. I demoed the old deck myself (ie dad stayed FAR away when I was doing that), and pulled all the nails out of the old material and saved as much as I could that wasn't rotted or damaged. I have it all saved off for something, not sure what. There is still one small load of crapola to go to the dump yet.
Inside the gazebo the wife wanted some tables built into the front corners, so this is what I came up with:
She found some cheapo stools that we painted to match everything that fit right under those ledges. Sometimes you get lucky.
I didn't make the gazebo screens myself, but I did do all the framing and whatnot. I figure it was worth it to let the pros make the screens since so many DIY people told me not to DIY, that they don't last but a season or so because we just don't have the tools/skills to make those screens tight.
I think we're in the whole project just over $4k for everything except the chairs. Lumber, screws, saw blades, screw gun batteries, stain, bracketry, screen door and the screens, and a bed extender for the pickup. Had I known how much of the framing was rotted I would have ordered a bunch of it from BMC like I did with the top boards. As it was, I pulled a few, bought a few at Home Depot, did a few more, etc. Inefficient and expensive that way but it seemed like every time I thought I was done I found another piece that was rotted. There was no flashing between the old deck and the house, so there was some rot to repair there as well. It's flashed and caulked and sealed now.
There was a lot of weekends of this. Lots.
Those funky benches on top of the deck got recycled into goat toys. They use them every day:
All in all, there are like 200 mistakes, bad cuts, funky joins, hacks, "wtf is that?" framing.... but it's done... it's 10x as solid as the previous one, and I can say "I made that". Also, I saved a crap ton of money. What's really amazing is that before I moved to NC I didn't even own a hammer (or screw gun, skill saw, chop saw, table saw, string line, square, shovel, pick, clamps, router, etc), I had never built anything. Dad should have taught me this stuff before. Guess I was too busy working on computer stuff.
Mission accomplished.
And somehow @Sneakymedic thinks we're going to build him one at his place now. My labor isn't cheap, I demand payment in ammo!
It took a while, mostly because it was the wife's job to paint everything but she finished that up today. So I give you, deck 2.0:
Before:
And how it sits today:
She wanted "wrap-around steps" and I wanted to be able to still drive vehicles past the deck (and there is a big tree out of frame that we didn't want to touch). I also wanted the steps a constant width, something that I couldn't seem to explain to dad very well so I just framed it up myself and he saw my vision about half way through. The idea of having the finished edge came to me about half way through framing so I had to go back and add in a whole bunch of extra little bits to make that happen. I see why if you're paying for the labor that you wouldn't do that.
That oh-so-80s style line / border is everywhere:
The whole thing is screwed together, not a single nail anywhere. I demoed the old deck myself (ie dad stayed FAR away when I was doing that), and pulled all the nails out of the old material and saved as much as I could that wasn't rotted or damaged. I have it all saved off for something, not sure what. There is still one small load of crapola to go to the dump yet.
Inside the gazebo the wife wanted some tables built into the front corners, so this is what I came up with:
She found some cheapo stools that we painted to match everything that fit right under those ledges. Sometimes you get lucky.
I didn't make the gazebo screens myself, but I did do all the framing and whatnot. I figure it was worth it to let the pros make the screens since so many DIY people told me not to DIY, that they don't last but a season or so because we just don't have the tools/skills to make those screens tight.
I think we're in the whole project just over $4k for everything except the chairs. Lumber, screws, saw blades, screw gun batteries, stain, bracketry, screen door and the screens, and a bed extender for the pickup. Had I known how much of the framing was rotted I would have ordered a bunch of it from BMC like I did with the top boards. As it was, I pulled a few, bought a few at Home Depot, did a few more, etc. Inefficient and expensive that way but it seemed like every time I thought I was done I found another piece that was rotted. There was no flashing between the old deck and the house, so there was some rot to repair there as well. It's flashed and caulked and sealed now.
There was a lot of weekends of this. Lots.
Those funky benches on top of the deck got recycled into goat toys. They use them every day:
All in all, there are like 200 mistakes, bad cuts, funky joins, hacks, "wtf is that?" framing.... but it's done... it's 10x as solid as the previous one, and I can say "I made that". Also, I saved a crap ton of money. What's really amazing is that before I moved to NC I didn't even own a hammer (or screw gun, skill saw, chop saw, table saw, string line, square, shovel, pick, clamps, router, etc), I had never built anything. Dad should have taught me this stuff before. Guess I was too busy working on computer stuff.
Mission accomplished.
And somehow @Sneakymedic thinks we're going to build him one at his place now. My labor isn't cheap, I demand payment in ammo!
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