Up to now, the majority of the posts on here are older projects I’m just now writing about. However, while I’m catching up on the old stuff, I figured I should start posting a new and ongoing project: The deck.

A back deck is something we’ve wanted since we first bought the house. Our patio is located off the back of the house along the middle level and it’s always had issues. The main issue being water drainage. Over the years the patio has settled and sunk towards the house. This caused water to collect against our house and eventually drain in to our crawlspace. So the patio needed to go.

The cracks are from the patio settling and from the roots of a giant pine tree we had removed years ago.
Here you can see how much the patio has sunk against the house.

Another issue has been the hill where the patio sits. We have never known what to do with it. It’s too steep for grass, and pine straw or mulch eventually just slide down it so it’s constantly covered in weeds. We’ve thought about doing bushes, but never planted anything because we knew that would get in the way if we ever removed the patio. So the hill always looked terrible.

The weeds are extra crazy this year because we knew we were going to start on the deck.

The final issue, and this isn’t as big of a deal as the others, are the steps. Since the patio has settled over the years the first step out is much bigger than it should be. This has always made going in and out a little awkward and when you’re having a party the last thing you want is someone tripping and falling.

Since we don’t have any other big-ticket items to worry about right now, we felt like this would be a good time to build a deck. After getting a few quotes and being shocked at how much a deck costs, I decided to build the thing myself. Sure I won’t have it done it a couple of days like a professional, but I won’t have to spend thousands of extra dollars either. Also, I get a lot of joy when it comes to building something on my own. The big question is, how long will it take? Susan says 3 months, and my dad says 5. Hopefully I can prove them wrong since we started on the project this past weekend!

The demolition is the one part that required a professional. The guys at GP Demolition did a great job. They were very nice and made sure to minimize yard destruction. They even backed up their truck to the fence so our driveway wouldn’t get damaged from the bobcat going back and forth. I also asked them to grade the hill down quite a bit and I was very happy with the outcome.

When we built the fence my dad was smart enough to make a section that was removable. Just take out a few bolts and slide an 8 foot section to the side.
Since the patio was already in pieces, removing it went pretty fast.
Here you can see there is a lot less hill to deal with than before.

Now that the patio is gone it’s up to me to get this project done in 3 months or less. Do you think I can do it without dying from the heat?

Be seeing you.

-E

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