The Deck

In 2005 we finally set in motion the dream we had of building a deck off the rear of our house. We drew up our plans, presented them to the city and were given a proper permit for the proposed work. We needed to add French doors, relocate the a/c, the electrical service and the plumbing that was in that area before we could even get a post in the ground. We ran new power out to the garage and prepped for power at the deck.

What an exhilarating feeling to tear out something you always thought was ugly. Such was the case with the little "bump-out" hutch and window we had to demo to make way for the French doors. What we thought would be a very easy task turned out to be quite difficult. This old house is pretty sturdy. I believe we are still finding ancient nails from that portion of demolition. And it is really weird to have a great big gaping hole in your house. Leaves you feeling quite exposed! Naturally we had to special order the door because the standard off the shelf size of six feet wide was too big to center on the wall. We needed the five foot model (oh yeah, $$$$ compared to the shelf model). There were three layers of siding on the house; original wood, topped by wide board cedar, covered by aluminum siding in a manner that told us it wasn't a professional siding installer that performed the job. We got the tree trimmer out here and he shimmied up the tree and did a spectacular job of trimming this monster tree that is to shade the proposed deck. Shortly after we installed the door, had the tree trimmed and the mechanicals relocated we decided to bite the bullet and have the whole house resided and the windows re-trimmed. Unfortunately the sider, who was a family member, was not very efficient and the project ate up the remainder of the summer. We vacation in September (Austria this time) so for us 2005 did not see any construction on the proposed deck. We did however have beautiful French doors to nowhere. Oh yeah and we did remove all the wallpaper in the dining room (location of the new French doors) and re papered the whole room with paintable wallpaper, which we painted Hubbard Squash.

2006-Sent in renewal fees for the City permit. Then we got someone out here to dig the holes for the posts. Tom meticulously set up the batten boards and calculated where the holes needed to be. Since we did not want this deck to ever be wobbly we went with the premise more is better than what is required. So 13 holes were what we were planning on. The first guy could not get through the bed rock our property is on. He didn't charge us anything for a few of the shallow holes he was able to dig, but he more or less told us we needed to find someone else. We called Post Holes Unlimited and they promptly came out and got 11 of the holes dug out. One hole to be dug was just too close to the inner corner of the house and the other he was worried about the huge root and rock. We were happy with that. At least we only had to hand dig those few holes. Additionally two of the holes were bottomed entirely by rock, so we assumed they went down at least another 6 to 8 inches. Unfortunately because the ground was so impossible he couldn't really stay on track with the marked spots for the holes. This changed the ultimate size on one end because you can only overhang so far. No matter, we were finally on our way. We had the holes inspected by the city and could now start the footings. By this time it is already July. We rented a cement mixer, got the sauna tube-forms and were ready for the footings. That done we commenced with beam construction and installation. September again, another vacation (glorious Italy this time). We did manage to get the joists across as well as a few deck boards on. By the way, deck clips are the way to go. Extra work to start off with but the end product is wonderful-no unsightly nail heads or hammer bangs.

2007-Additional renewal fees to the City for the permit. We were on a roll. Got all the decking on and trimmed as needed. Poured the cement pad for the stairs and built a beautiful set of stairs, 6 feet wide. Built and installed the railings and topped it with a stabilizing piece of wood. We installed skirting to match what would be appropriate for the era of the house, a 1x3 vertical board, spaced 1 1/2 inches apart. We had the electrician out to install a weatherproof outlet at the deck and we were finally ready for the final inspection. Code doesn't require staining and since, yes it was September and vacation time again (Slovenia-spectacular), we called the city for the last inspection. We purchased a lovely outdoor seating set (Deep Seating Relaxation Set-Home Depot-Hampton Bay), a round table with four chairs, along with an umbrella that has solar lights and utilized two of our existing small table & chair sets. We put up a screen canopy over the "relaxation" set. Plant holders, herb pots, all were ready to go. Now we just needed to add a decorative top board to the railing and do the staining, but of course, that is for the next year.

2008-We received a notice from the city that our deck was in violation of code and hadn't passed inspection. This was six months after we had the inspection. Turns out the top piece we had on the stair railing didn't qualify as a handrail. We were lacking the proper "graspable" railing. They were not going to require additional fees, as they agreed, the notice should have been sent to us six months earlier. We installed two hand rails (one on each side) and had a re-inspection. I confirmed that the inspection passed and we were at long last legal with the city and done with the inspections and any additional permit fees! We completed the staining this past weekend and tweaked a few little items we didn't like. Hurray! We had the deck completed prior to summer. It is about 450 square feet of beautiful bliss. Never mind the tree is dropping something every day of the year. No matter the squirrels bring their nuts to crack open and litter. Pay no attention to the fact that it is like having two more rooms to clean. Haven't even done the final tally on the cost of this entire project. It is spectacular to us and for me the realization of a dream I had almost five years ago. My hubby has a wonderful way of listening to my dream plans and turning them in to reality. We are an awesome team and even though many of our projects are learn as you go, we seem to do okay. He trusts my vision and always brings it to fruition.

Now we just need to get the landscaping all done around the deck, get the fence going, build new front steps...