Building the Deck

I called in a great crew on Saturday to build a new deck. I’ve talked about building it since the day I bought the house over two years ago. I was pumped up to get it done. The guys worked fast and furious. We had the framing complete by noon including the steps. It’s amazing how fast a project can go with the right people and the right tools. The crew size was cut in half, down to two, at about 3:30, but we still managed to get all the decking done and the main support spindles in place before we called it a day.

Now that we had a great head start, I could finish the rest of the project myself. I spent most of Sunday avoiding the rain drops, and continually bringing my electric tools in and out of the rain. I got a little bit done, but with so much time wasted running to Menards and the Home Depot and didn’t have much to show for my efforts. My circular saw burt out, I had to get a few more materials, and I had to buy a cordless drill upgrade. My puny 14.4 volt Skill Drill would only last about 20 minutes… then take 4 hours to charge. I couldn’t get anything done. I have a wired drill, but it only has two speeds, balls-to-the-walls or off. I kept stripping the heads on the screws.

Sunday was a pretty good day. After some head scratching I finally decided on how I wanted to do my railing. I’m happy with the result, but fabricating all the spindles added a lot of time – I think it was worth it.

If all goes well I should have it done this week.

Photo gallery here.