More House Projects

THE DECK

One of the things I liked about this house when we bought it was the large backyard deck.  We bought the house in winter and everything in the back was covered in snow, but I could at least see the basic shape of it.  It was large enough we could have kept the barbeque grill and a patio set on it.  Unfortunately, once the snow melted, we could see that the entire deck was in pretty sorry shape. The handrails were separating from the deck, several planks were rotting through, and the wood had obviously not been treated to withstand the elements.  The foundations were set into concrete footings, but the beams that were drilled into the footings were cracked and deteriorating. 

We knew the deck would need to be replaced, we just didn't realize quite how quickly...until Justin's leg went right through the wood on his way out to the grill one night.  The whole leg was one giant purple and red bruise and he could barely walk for several weeks afterward.  We were grateful it was his leg and not one of the kids, and realized we couldn't put off the repair any longer.

 Deconstruction of the deck was a lot of work, but a lot of fun at the same time.  We had great weather the entire week and Grandpa was able to come help with the project.

The wood was so rotted on the deck that the boys were able to pry entire boards off with their bare hands, although using the hammers was definitely more fun!

It wasn't long before we had a sizeable pile of rotted wood and the deck quickly disappeared.

We chose to put in a stone patio and build a porch coming off the back of the house.  First we had to do A LOT of digging.  We had to dig out all the old concrete foundations, which was tricky, but then the real trouble started when we had to dig through all the roots from the giant tree which for whatever reason was planted about 8 feet from the back of the house. 

Eventually, we had the area cleared of roots, then rented a compactor to pack the dirt down. Then we ordered several truckloads of patio fill rock, compacted that, leveled everything off and started laying patio stones.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT:

Due to budget constraints, we finished the deck, the center section and one side section of the patio, but the other side section had to be put off, and is going to be finished (hopefully) this summer.  The giant tree limited my project design possilities, but I am extremely pleased with how well the entire project turned out.