Railings, and DONE!

Life has been kind of crazy the last few weeks (I did can 75 pints of apricot pineapple jelly, for instance), so even though work has been going on on the deck, I haven't gotten the pictures posted.  And now it's done!!  Yippee!!

Well, there is one post cap that was warped, and I have to take it back and get a replacement.  But that just has to wait for another day.

Once the stairs were up, we could walk up and down, but it was a bit nerve racking, since there were no railings.  So we didn't do it much.  It was very nice to have the back door available, though!

So the first thing to do was put in the posts.  What a pain.  There is a steel post, then the vinyl sleeve that goes over it.  You have to put down the steel support, then attach the post, then put on the sleeve to make it pretty.  But they got done! 

 

The metal support under the post.

Railings done on the stairs.

That was one day's work.

Next came the railings.   We did the railings on the deck one day, then another day we did the stairs.

First railing section done on the deck!

All the deck railings finished!

The stairs were a bit tricky.  We didn't get them perfect, BUT unless you are looking for it, the imperfections are not noticeable. 

Here's the railing support for the stairs.

One section done, one to go!

All done!  Doesn't it look great!

Stairs!

We worked a little bit on Monday and 4 hours today, and now we have stairs!  They aren't completely finished, as we are going to put Trex on top.  But they are all bolted together and onto the deck. Secure!  It's kind of creepy walking up and down them, though, as there are no hand rails.  Eeek.

All the treads on, but upside down so we can put supports under the top stair.

All ready to put into place to measure the header.

All the supports in place!  Just needs some railing and the Trex.

Decking on!

Jacob and John got all the decking on yesterday!  It was quite a chore, and John was glad to have Jacob's help.  Here are some shots:

Here, they've laid the boards down to just see how they fit. But you can now stand up on the deck!

You can see how long the boards were before they cut them off!

Finally getting rid of the last piece of the old porch.  They couldn't put in the last board with this in the way.

Wahoo!  All the decking is on and secured!  Looking good!

A little bit more done...

John had to work on Saturday, our normal "building" day, but he did take the day off today, and worked on the deck for a while. Like 4 hours.  Then that was enough!

It may not seem like a lot, but the things he did today (with a little of my help), was: hang the rest of the joist hangers, hang the joists, screw the ends of the joists into the side supports, and bolt everything down!  Everything took time!  And there were lots of bolts!

Looking good!

View from above.  John's just finishing putting in the bolts on the bottom.

View from below.  Looking so good!

Lots and lots of bolts, and top and bottom and on the sides.

There are a total of 16 joists and hangers.  Not huge, but just right for us.

Building begins!

We were very grateful to Thomas and Jacob who came over and helped on Saturday.  This was the 2nd time we NEEDED help!  Probably the last time we'll actually need it, but help is always appreciated.  Especially when it lets me relax and do other things!

We got the supports and the deck frame in, as well as started putting in the joists.  We have half of the joist hangers up, and one joist.  But then it was time to quit, so we did!

Leveling the frame.

Don't you love the ladder holding one side up?  We did it this way so we could measure the needed heights of the supports.

Securing to house.

Securing posts.  Notice the hanging "flags"?  This is trying to prevent John from hitting his head, since he'd already done it 4 times.

Yeah!  It's strong!

Oops!  Forgot to cut this old support to size before we attached the joist!

Finished for the day!  Looking good!

Demolition continues...

Thomas and I got out there this morning and took down the headers, the stair beams and the decking.  Looked pretty naked!

 

 After John got home and we ate lunch, John and I went out there and continued.  There were two bolts that were coming up from the cement that had been supporting the stair posts.  John cut them down to size.

 

Then we measured and cut the headers going into the house, pre-hung them for "good measure", drilled a few bolt holes, as well, then took them down.  The top is going to be pre-built, then we'll hang it on the house and measure the posts while it is up. (Supported by ladders, people, etc.)  Since the post holes are at different levels, that's the way it is going to be done.

Here's the first cut:

Here's what the side of the house looks like now:

 Here's the "outline" of our deck, just waiting to be put up!

Next week's goal: hang this, put the posts in, and hang the joists.

Stairs are gone!

I knew John was going to be pretty busy on Saturday, and wouldn't have as much time to work on the deck, so I took a couple of hours this week and took off the stairs and unscrew the top boards.  Besides 2 stubborn screws, the top boards are just sitting on the supports.  Not very safe, right now!

THAT did not stop Nathan from getting a ladder and coming into the house that way when I invited him for dinner!  Imagine my surprise when I hear someone unlocking the back door!  I yelled out, "Are you crazy?!!"  Yep, I think that was the word!  He's been coming in through that door for over 20 years.  Why should he change now, just because there are no stairs?