Hammering it Out
- lainakcollins
- Mar 16, 2016
- 3 min read
Before I begin to tell you about this marvelous deck build I managed to do in ONE WEEKEND!!!! Let me give you a sneak peak as to the fun Scout had while I was hard at work!
Thats right, that is a wet dog who rolled around in the dirt and created a muddy dog... I can't take her anywhere, not even her own back yard!
Anyway, lately I am all about making my home to be an entertainers dream or at least as much as you can in a small bungalow. Our home was all up to date minus the one bathroom we recently remodeled, but I cannot stand our backyard! So, as you can image I am on another one of my tangents. Instead of starting with the the little things such as some gardening or fixing our weedy grass to start with (thats next week) my dad and I built a deck over weekend. Thats right, you heard me, a deck! And because I had the help of a true General Contractor (at no cost to me:) This project was actually finished in ONE weekend!
Tried and true to my renovating roots, I once again loaded the car up, TO THE MAX! The lumber yard was not too happy with us for opting to use our Toyota to bring it all home.
My husband and I leveled out the ground prior to the build with left over soil from the 2 vegetable gardens we had pulled out. The soil must have been fertile because all those weeds grew within one weeks time... Scout helped of course! She also decided this was the optimal time to learn how to dig, but you will view those results later.
After our 2 supply runs, we began to build the box. This would allow us to see where the placement would need to go since we were creating it to be a step up from our current patio and would allow us to level it appropriately. It was almost like we knew what we were doing, because the box turned out to be almost perfectly level from the get-go! What can I say? I am JUST. THAT. GOOD!
After getting the box set and level it was time to measure the 16" spaces for the joists and nail them into place. By this point the dogs were hot from running around and I almost had to knock them out of the way; all they wanted to do was lay in the shade filled dirt hole.
The fun part came after this; boarding it all up and seeing the completed space! I had a little trouble screwing down the boards, the gun got away from me a few times. However, I think it is safe to say I am a pro now!
So, there he is the man of hour, or many hours, my dad! Good Lord, if it wasn't for him I don't think I would have even bought the proper wood or I would have had a bunch of men shaking their heads at me in the lumber department. I cannot thank him enough for sacrificing his time and his patience!
The finished product turned out better than I ever expected. The last thing I wanted was more bland concrete. I wanted another textural element to add to the landscape and a place to put the new gas fire pit we just bought (2 days ago). Now all we need to do this spring is add that much needed privacy fence!
As promised, here are Scouts promiscuous photos during this backyard deck build.
Please continue to SCOUT it out with LAINA and Scout!