Deck Building Extravaganza!

We worked very hard this week to be ready for doing some major deck building over the weekend.  At the beginning of the week all we had was some holes in the ground and lumber in a pile.

Earlier in the week we got fill dirt and gravel delivered. 

The first thing we did was to install the posts in the ground.  We used braces to make sure they were level and plumb before we tamped down the soil. 

Once the posts were in place we needed to grade so that water will flow away from the house.  We started by adding some of the rubble from the old porch to the large depressions.  Then we added a lot of fill dirt and tamped it down so there is a nice gentle slope. We covered this with a sheet of thick plastic (cutting out for the posts).  Then we were ready for help!

My parents and our brother-in-law Todd came over to help us with the framing of the deck.  It took most of the day to cut and notch the posts, install the beams and braces, and install half of the inner joists. 

Of course we made a couple mistakes - and if you're building a deck, hopefully you can learn from them.  The first mistake was that we put all four outer joists in place before installing the inner joists. 

We are building a freestanding deck so there is no ledger board attached to the house.  Normally you would attach the joists to the ledger board and then cut them to length in place before installing the outer joist.  Since we didn't do that, we ended up with a very bad bow at the end of the day Saturday. 

So on Sunday we removed the nails that were holding the joists in place and removed the outer joist.  We then installed the rest of the inner joists, cut them all to the right length, and re-installed the outer joist.  Now there is no more bow and it looks much better!

One other big mistake is that we didn't install the hurricane ties on properly.  None of us had ever used them and didn't think too much about it before installation.  We got about 20 of these in place before we realized our mistake.  So my mom and dad removed and repositioned over 200 nails to put them right.  This took a lot of time but it's finally all correct and we learned a valuable lesson - look up the installation instructions for all hardware prior to installation!

Throughout the weekend my mom watched Samantha which was a huge help.  Of course sometimes she was able to play supervisor.

Once my parents left on Sunday, we placed all the remaining lumber on the framed deck so that they could dry out (and stop killing our grass).  

Our next steps for the deck build are: 

     1.  Install railing posts

     2.  Install deck boards

     3.  Install railing sides and ballusters

     4.  Install railing top

     5.  Pour concrete pad for stairs

     6.  Install stringers for stairs

     7.  Install toe kick and tread for stairs

     8.  Install railing for stairs

     9.  Set up deck furniture

     10.  Relax on our new deck with a delicious beer!

Our food basket for the week included chicken, roast, sausage, rolls, yogurt, green beans, eggs, cucumber, corn, tomatoes, yellow squash, pears, and apples.  Yummy!

Samantha is crawling so fast and getting into so much.  She loves paper so the crate of magazines is a favorite.  She crawls over to it and stands up so she can get a better angle.

 

She loves helping me with laundry.  I just can't wait until she can sort the socks!

Her weekly pictures are getting so much harder to take:

 

Hopefully next week we'll have finished deck pictures (or at least a lot closer!).

Baby Goes to the Beach

We took a break from work and the house to enjoy some time at the beach.  This post mostly contains cute baby pictures!

Before we headed for the shore Chris, my dad, and brother poured the footers.  It didn’t take them long and now we’re all set to put the posts in the ground.

When we returned from vacation, my dad helped me apply some waterproofing to the bottoms of the posts.  We know that it’s not necessary but it makes us feel better since they will be in the ground. 

The condo we rented for vacation was right on the beach so we had a nice view from the balcony. 

Samantha loved the water and the sand – and she only tried to eat it a few times! 

  

  

One afternoon we went to Assateague and walked on one of the trails.

And of course saw several of the wild horses.

We went on another tour of Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware.  We went five years ago and it has grown so much since then.  I wore Samantha during the tour and her head was on a swivel looking at all the tanks, pipes, etc.  Perhaps we have a future chemical engineer or master brewer on our hands?

In the condo we found some new toys for Samantha and she was very happy to play with them.

We played a lot of miniature golf and Samantha wanted to join in – she wouldn’t let go of the club!

And a few more pictures from the week:

 

Next weekend is deck building extravaganza – we hope to share a lot of progress!

Footing Inspection Passed!!

After the debacle last weekend with the auger, we were slightly annoyed that we had to dig the holes for the footers by hand.  We had only dug half of the holes over the weekend and we were hoping to get the inspector out this week.

Chris worked Monday night to dig hole number 4 – and after all the work he did that night and over the weekend left him completely exhausted.  So on Tuesday morning (while Samantha napped) I dug hole number 5 and half of hole number 6.  Chris was able to quickly knock out the last half hole that evening.

The inspector came out Thursday morning and gave us the big stamp of approval.  We are so fortunate to have such a great building inspector (some of the others (*cough* electrical *cough*) we’ve had have been less than desirable!). 

On Saturday, Chris, my dad, and my brother poured the footers.  They used 2 full 80 lb bags of concrete per hole for a footing of at least 8" deep.  Now that it's set we can start putting in the posts to get ready for the big "deck building weekend!"  

We harvested Chris’ hops this week.  They grew very large and he’s excited to be brewing with them soon.

 Our food basket this week contained lettuce, kale, leeks, pears, apples, cucumber, potatoes, eggs, green beans, chicken, ribs, bacon, yogurt and bread.  Delicious!

 In addition to the basket, I harvested our beets and carrots from the planters.  I can honestly say that I've never seen either vegetable grow so small!  Chris cut them up and cooked them with the kale so at least they didn't go to waste.

 

Samantha had a very busy week.  We went to two play dates so she had a lot of fun with other babies.  

 

She is crawling with much more confidence - she's crawled from the den, through the dining room, and into the kitchen to find Chris.  Most of the time she's crawling just to get to her next toy/favorite pet/parent/etc.

 

I was looking at our photo albums recently and decided to take a couple pictures to compare looks at this age (Chris' picture is a guess to how old he is there!).  

Tucker is still being very patient with Samantha.  She has learned to be very gentle when trying to pet/play with him.

  

And we think she's just an all-around cutie!

 

The next couple weeks are all about the deck.  We look forward to relaxing on it in the fall. 

*Thanks to Megan and Amy for the photos at the play dates!

Can You Dig It?

The deck work has officially commenced.  Our lumber and materials for the deck were delivered on Thursday.  We had 84 Lumber deliver everything.  Before they could unload the lumber (by dumping it off the back of the truck) they had to unload 37 bags of concrete (that’s 2960 lbs – close to 1 ½ tons!).  Fortunately they were nice enough to put it in the garage for us.

There were a few mistakes with some of the hardware (lag screws instead of hex bolts, etc.) so Samantha and I will have to take a little trip over there to get it fixed this week.  But we’re happy to have all the big stuff here.

Using batter boards, mason’s line, and some bright pink spray paint we were able to layout the deck on Sunday.  It took a couple times to get everything square and measured correctly for the outer beam.

We have two beams and three posts per beam in our plan.  The one beam will be 2 ½ feet from the house so the post holes in that row are in the same location as the old back porch.  We dug through the rubble and dirt that were under that porch and we hit concrete – a lot of concrete.   We expected to find footers under the cinder block but we never thought that there would be a slab of concrete.    

One of the neighborhood kids mentioned to Chris awhile ago that there used to be a big hole under the porch.  He thought they were mistaken but I guess the previous owners filled the big hole with concrete.  So in order to dig the holes for the posts we had to either break up a LOT of concrete or move the post about a foot and a half.  Guess which option we chose. 

Once we figured out our new locations for the inner beam, we started digging.  I had rented a power auger to make the hole digging easier.  It sounds good in theory but when we tried…complete failure.  The auger would not go in straight and then if it hit even the smallest rock it would just stop.  We struggled with it for about 1/3 of two different holes before we gave up and started hand digging. 

We finished up three holes (and dug out a lot of big rocks) for the outer beam.  To pass inspection they need to be 30” deep (ridiculous for this area of the country) and they need to be 18 inches in diameter.  These are very big holes!  Once we finish digging, we have to pass the footer inspection before we can start pouring concrete.

In non-deck related happenings, I harvested our basil since it was starting to go.  I cut 7 shopping bags full and we spent a lot of time cutting off the seed pods, washing, drying, and pulling off leaves.  I used the food processor to chop them all up and then froze them into cubes.  The picture below is just the remains (we didn’t remove all the Thai or lime basil). 

Our food basket this week included cantaloupe, corn, apples, green beans, mustard greens, tomatoes, eggplant, pepper and onion sausage, chicken thighs, bread, yogurt and milk. 

The first night I made a great sausage risotto – my first attempt at risotto and it turned out really well.  I think I’ll have to make it again.

We have noticed a lot of bugs and spiders around lately.  The biggest invasion was moths in the bird feeders (we forgot to empty them after the winter).  There were so many moths in the sunroom that Chris hung a fly trap – it worked quite well!

Chris is growing a few grapevines in the back yard.  He was looking at them and noticed that one whole section was missing the leaves.  At first he thought maybe deer but on closer inspection he found this worm.  It was similar to a tomato hornworm but it was larger, purple, and was missing the horn.

Samantha had a big first this week…she pooped on the potty!  I got a book from the library about early potty training and thought we’d give it a try.  I figure that if it doesn’t work then we’re no worse off than if we wait until she’s “ready” (which for some kids is over 3 or 4 years old!).  She did it again this morning so we’re off to a pretty good start.  We’re not pressuring her into it – just sitting her on the potty when the time is right and having fun (playing peek-a-boo, singing songs, etc.).  Of course only time will tell if this works!

She has been doing a little more crawling lately.  She still doesn’t just take off across the room but she does work to get to a toy or something that she wants.  I don’t think it will be very long before she is more adventurous though. 

She also sat up on her own this week.  She only did it twice but she gets very close most of the time by getting up and leaning on one hand. 

She also likes relaxing on her side – this was after her weekly pictures.

And of course the weekly pictures:

We hope that next week we will pass our footing inspection!