New Deck

Last Saturday my Mom and Dad came over to work at my house. Originally we were going to cut down the massive willow tree in my front yard, but I guess Dad decided he didn't want to do that. Instead, we tackled the back deck. My back deck was very nice, but it was a little bigger than what I wanted. We decided to cut it down and make it a bit more compact. Also, the original stairs were a bit rotton and shakey. After much chainsawing, cutting, measuring, prying, pulling nails, pounding nails, ripping with pry bars, and some grunts and groans here's what we got.

You can see where those 2x4's are laying on the ground around the edge. That's how big my deck used to be. It still needs a railing, and we are going to stain it. Hopefully, something other than red and pink (those were the faded oringinal colours). I like dark brown. I'm thinking of making the area were the old deck used to be into garden. My yard is pretty shadey, but there's alot of sun around the deck. My Mom wants to plant some tomatoes, beans, carrots, etc. And maybe a few perennials. Eventually, we'll build a bit of a patio farther out in front with some stone. It's going to be beautiful... someday.


This is some of the wood we saved. It's mostly cedar and some 2x4's and 4x4's. We threw away a whole lot more. The back of my Dad's truck was piled pretty high :).

I especially like the new stairs. Now I don't have to worry about going through them every time I step on them.

It rained almost all day Saturday, which makes for some interesting working conditions. But considering the weather we got alot done, and I really like my new deck. It's going to be great when everything is cleaned up and finished and all the flowers are growing... so nice.