Starting the process by getting the holes dug.
My ground is nothing but clay and rock.
Digging with a shovel seemed too much like work, so I brought someone in to dig the holes for me.
It took him about 2-3 hours to dig my 14 holes.
The job of the guy on the right was to stand around and smoke cigarettes.
That’s an 18 inch auger on the front of the bobcat.
Next, my father came over and we filled the holes with cement.
Instead of mixing it by hand, I bought 3/4 of a yard of premixed cement.
This was actually kinda fun, mostly because it wasn’t that hard to do.
Each of the 14 holes got 9 inches, not to mention I poured cement in my footers.
A few days later, my brother came over to help me mount the ledger board.
As you can see here, we don’t believe in saw horses.
This part of the job only took about an hour (minus the 30 min to go back to his house for tools, and the hour and a half getting stuff at Home Depot).
I had the wood delivered for the frame, but they couldn’t get it around back, so I had to carry it there by hand.
Just starting to build the frame here, but had the wrong blade for the reciprocating saw.
It turns out we also had the wrong length 2x10s….
So as Mathew is happy to show, we got longer ones (as well as the right blade for the saw).
Now cutting the boards is a little easier.
At this point, we’re half way there and have developed a system.
Kelli being the first to test the makeshift “redneck deck”.
This is the first picture where Rob looks like he’s doing something, so I figured I’d leave it in.
The frame is finished here, just waiting on the gravel for under the deck before putting the joists up.
The guy delivering the gravel said, “I’ve gotten bigger things into smaller places.”
The truck ejects the white…..stone.
That’s what 7 tons of gravel looks like. The boards in the background are 16 feet long.
Mathew was cool enough to come over and help shovel the gravel.
He was even happy to move it and dump it for me, too.
With the stone laid, I need to hang the joists.
But with that done too, it’s time to move to the fun part of the job.
Here Rob and I have rolled out the screen (to keep the bugs from coming up) and have laid down some of the decking.
Unfortunately, it got dark out so we had to stop. None of the boards are screwed down, so we had to be very careful.
On the right hand side of the deck, we needed to cut off the ends of the joists. This is where the stairs are going to go.
After putting the rim joists on, we can now start putting down the decking.
This is slow going because it takes three drills. One to drill the hole, one to counter sink, and one to drive in the screw.
We finished the first eight rows before we had to quit for the day. We then laid out the rest of the decking.
Dinkle came over the next day, and we knocked out some more of the work.
My first lunch on the deck.
As you can see on the left hand side, we finished quite a few rows that day. Man, it’s so close I can taste it!!!
I finished raking all the stones from the pile up, and had to use the shop-vac to get the rest.
The first set of stairs, done!!
No more jumping off the deck.
Mathew eye’s up one of the posts he’s helping put up.
But then, looks like I’m doing all the work.
So I give him a hard time, and he helps out.
Most of the posts are up, and we decide to call it a day here.
In this picture, the railing is partially up, and the other stairs are almost done.
Stairs are all done here, I’m just putting in the balusters.
Man, this is turning into a long project, but…..
I’m Done!!!!!!!!!
Or am I?
It turns out, I needed to add the hand rail on the right and the kick boards to all the stairs.
Of course, that would be both sets of stairs.
Also, this support beam had to be “beefed-up”.
After these were done, I was done….
Or am I?
What could be on the back of the trailer?
Whatever it is, it should be fun to watch them get it onto my deck.
There was no lifting….
Just a lot of sliding and pushing.
Steps were difficult….
And were clearly labeled with a black diamond.
Lowering it into it’s resting place….
So it can be my resting place.
Of course it needs to be hooked to electricity.
And seeing this isn’t the type of thing you can just plug into an outlet….
I had to have a 50 amp line run.
But once it was hooked up, all I had to do was wait for the water to warm up.
10 hours later, and we’ve gone from 41 degrees to 101.
Now, it’s party time!!!!
Yes, we all had a good time.
Well it took almost a year from the day I got the permit, to when it was finished, but….
It was well worth the time and energy spent. Time to relax!!!!