summer home project

Every year it seems we take on some project around our home or yard. Last year, it was the grape trellis and garden fence.

This year, we replaced our deck. It's nineteen years old, as old as our house, which we've lived in since it was built. Our first house. We're still living in it, which is why we've taken to making upgrades in recent years.

Staining the deck is a constant hassle. We had talked over the years of wanting to replace it. This year, when my husband looked at the deck and said he should probably stain it again, I suggested that we look into replacing it with Trex. We figured out the materials we would need and priced it out on Lowes.com, the only store in our area that carries the brand. We've had to go back for some other additions, but drops in the bucket compared to the initial investment.

It wouldn't be cheap for our 10x10 ft. deck and stairs, but my husband was determined to do it himself and did the research. He took time off this past week to get it done. Aside from some rain delays, he finished most of it--the deck portion. He'll work on the stairs when he burns off more vacation time in a few weeks.

On the first day, he had help pulling up all the deck planks, balusters, and rails. The frame was still good after all this time, so we left that in place. It was all treated wood.

Before:

deer fence was the keep the cats on the deck

After:

Hubby did all the plank work with grooved boards and brackets. After the prep work of applying a special tape to the tops of all the old joists (for water protection) and getting the 4x4 posts in place, he had a good day and installed the planks all in one day. We had record rainfall yesterday, but we had a family reunion anyway, so we had a day off the project. The weather today was good to finish this. I helped today, and we put up all the post sleeves and rails around the deck area. The stairs aren't ready yet, or there would be rails going down also.

The planks are the Trex toasted sand color, and we used white for fascia to match the trim of our house and the railing. It looks great! And it's always good to work on a project together. Hubby did most of the work, but there are some things where it's better to let him work alone. And then there are things that are too tricky to take on alone, so I try to step in and help when I can, like installing the rails.

The cats don't get to go out loose on this since we have no way of keeping them from getting out, but we're working on getting a catio for them.

I didn't get much writing done today, but it was a good day to finish this part of this project.

Tomorrow, back to writing! (Forgotten worlds Book 17 reached 23,000 words, so past the halfway point.)