the deck adventure

we have some friends that have built a home near us and asked me to build their decks. understandably, i drafted jeremiah, christian, elijah, and our friend's son, brad, to help. with all of your recent remodeling projects, maybe christel and darren will have some insight in the elusive art of installing a composite decking system. turns out, this composite stuff is a precise science, pretty expensive, and didn't come with instructions... there are countless boxes of metal hangers, multiple length fasteners and oddly shaped composite pieces.

sound like a train wreck in the making? probably; so i thought it would be a hoot to photo document our little project.

this first photo was suppose to be our "before" picture; but jeremiah decided to jump in and louse it up. the front deck will be 29'x10' with steps coming down from the front door. my first, you can't turn back now, episode began when i cut a 7" deep x 29' long section of vinyl siding from the front of their house.

second photo was taken 7 hrs later. we have now dug five post holes (chipped through rock is more accurate), set our 2x8 rim and dropped in the floor joists. (again, jeremiah finding his way into the shot, and yes, he is barefoot..) so far, injuries have been kept to a minimum, despite jeremiah running around with no boots on. a couple splinters and some sawdust in the eye was the worst. christian and elijah are having fun helping on their first building project, carrying lumber and learning to read a measuring tape.

i went by lowe's, looking for hobbits to question, and was directed to a brochure with some vague ChoiceDek installation instructions. maybe it will suffice. we will see soon enough..