Deck Building

And now we travel back in time all the way to 2013 for a special post dedicated solely to our beast of a summer project: 

THE DECK AND PATIO

When we moved into this house, we didn't have enough cash to build a deck area right away. So we had the builder just leave us a few temporary steps at the back door. Here is our sad little back porch in 2012. It stayed that way for almost two years.

After pricing the cost of contracting out this project, Matt decided he was going to learn to do it himself. I admit, I had very little faith. I didn't doubt his skills or his aptitude, but I did doubt that he'd make the time for such a massive project. With all the little projects we never seem to get around to, this one seemed like a big stretch. But, he and YouTube proved me wrong. And it turned out to be a really cool experience -- one that I was involved in as much as Matt.

First step: remove temporary steps and dig a ton of super deep post holes. We had to dig below the frost line, which in our neck of the woods, is about four feet into the ground. Multiply that by 16 holes, and you get a lot of dirt...that has to be dumped somewhere. That's how we ended up making our raised garden.

Next step, cement in those posts and attach strong beams around the edges for everything else to rest on. Getting it all perfectly level was definitely the hardest part, in my opinion. Also, calculating all our angles just right. We went the difficult route and built an odd-shaped deck instead of a rectangle, so that made it tricky.

Next, build a frame around the edges and put all those cross beams in place.

Then, start screwing in deck boards. Space them perfectly. Trim them neatly. Do all this after the kids go to bed, with a little backyard spotlight. This is how we spent a lot of our summer nights -- working in the warm outside air, taking advantage of daylight until the sun finally set around 10:00, getting consumed by mosquitoes, going to bed with sore muscles, listening to good music and talking while we worked. It was so nice to not just watch TV every night. It felt productive, and energizing, and awesome to build something together.

Once that first deck top was in good shape, we started the deck coming off our bedroom door, which would eventually lead to a hot tub. Then we rented tools to tear up the grass, and dug and dug and dug about 400 square feet x 7 inches deep to build the foundation for a paver patio. This was by far the most awful part of the process. In hind sight, we should have just rented a Bobcat tractor because this step took FOREVER.

Once the depth was okay, a huge truck delivered a couple tons of gravel that we had to spread, level, and compact.

Once we finally finished building all the steps and their toe-kicks, we pressure washed and sanded the whole thing. Then Matt's mom and brother helped us paint the first layer of deck stain. We figured we would finish the dirty work before putting on a nice top coat.

Then came enough sand to cover the whole area with about 2 more inches. (Our grass is still recovering from the weight of that dump truck.)

Then came a zillion gray bricks, which were actually really hard to pick out. We had to install a border around the edges of the brick/sand/gravel area, level the sand just perfectly (another crazy headache), and then lay the pavers in exactly the right pattern. We decided on herringbone. This was my job.

Meanwhile, Matt would push sand around. We ended up with a lot of extra, so one day I made a little sandbox for the kids.

This is the day I found out I was pregnant. The work pace slowed a little for me after that, but we were at least able to finish laying the pavers before leaving for a big summer trip.

Here we are an an unfinished, but somewhat functional level.

Later, the boys helped Matt spread a special sand over all the bricks. When this sand gets wet, it turns into a sort of cement that holds the pavers together. After that was solid, we had to paint the pavers with a clear stain that made them look darker and will protect them from weather and chipping.

We built the benches on labor day weekend, but didn't get around to staining them for a while.

We eventually painted another coat of stain on both decks and finished the benches, sandbox, and garden box to match.

Next, we dug the foundation for the hot tub. Then we put big and small layers of gravel down and let the electrician do his thing with wires and tubes. We had a crazy time trying to move the hot tub into its position (in the rain), but it's finally done!

I think the very last step was attaching the lattice to the open edges. It looks much nicer this way. However, we still haven't managed to get a picture of the final product because it started snowing...and kind of never stopped. We still haven't had a complete snow melt since December, so our little backyard masterpiece is currently covered up. I'll get you a picture when spring decides to show up.