The New Deck

I can't tell you how much we appreciate the help of family in replacing our new deck. Our two sons-in-law, our brother-in-law with his son in law worked so hard along with my hubby over the weekend.

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The work started at 8am on Saturday morning. the first hour was dismateling and cleaning up the old underdeck.

Not only do you have to be thinking about how to pull these big old boards away safely, all the old nails have to be removed or hammered over from where it was attached to the cottage.

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Then with a clean slate and pile of new pressure treated wood, the building of the new frame starts. Measuring, cutting, nailing. More measuring, more cutting, more nailing. All in a systematic order.

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By early in the afternoon, the sun was getting pretty hot. The frame was up. Part of the super calculations that had to be made, was providing a space for a trap door so that we can get access to our water pump. See it, on the left hand side.

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Here is Terry, my brother -in-law with the fitting that will go into the water pump access hatch. He architected the deck. Weeks ago, he drew the deck on a CAD and figured out all the details.

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It's a good thing we had lots of muscle because those stringer boards were heavy. Here all the boys are working to fit something into place.

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We girls took care of the lunch. And after a quick lunch, the boys were right back at it. The deck boards were laid down, measured, custom cut to accommodate the water tank hatch, and then skrewed down one by one.

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And at the end of the warm sunny day, a cool bit of welcome rain moved in just as the final skrews were being put in.

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After a bit of cleanup and we called it a day. We had a nice supper and the deck builders got some well deserved rest.

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This morning, the same wraught iron railing was put back on the deck and it's as sturdy as a rock.

Then we spent a few hours sitting on the deck, admired the handywork, and took in the new wood smell.

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Many many thanks to all our family for your help. You just can't know how much we appreciated it!