Backyard Deck

While coming up with a plan the deck grew from 250 to 430 square feet, you can almost see that it ends at the corner of the kithen wall.

The yellow thing on the tripod is a laser grade level, it projects a laser beam 360 degrees around it and the hand held reciever mounts on a grade stick that you hold on the area you want to level, it tells you if you need to come up or down automatically.

It took me most of the day to dig the holes and set the tubes, it was rough, rocky soil with lots of debris.

After we had the posts all set Chris and I mixed and poured the concrete, just in time to start crashing from being so tired.

This is after we hauled all the extra dirt to the pile around the corner, eventually I will sift it and use the soil to plant more grass in the parts of the yard that have none.

Just another view, the rest of the support posts will be attached directly to the concrete patio, less holes to dig that way.

That's what I'm talking about.

There I am just after making a couple passes with the sod cutter we rented, it made removing the sod quite a bit easier.

The sod cutter is a monster to move around, it weighs 350 pounds and doesn't have reverse!.

The thing beats you up a bit but it cuts an 18" wide strip that you just roll up and remove, pretty easy.

We were able to get it all done in less than 4 hours, much faster than doing it by hand.

Now we had to get the dirt covered up before the rain turned the area to a mud hole.

We rolled out the landscaping cloth and piled the last of the gravel on top to keep it from blowing away before we cover the rest of it.

Now we really can get a feel for how big the deck is going to be, huge!

The concrete step needed to be removed for the lower level of the deck to be attached to the wall, bring in the Brute!

The Brute weighs 65 pounds, after about an hour or so and some sore arms the step was gone.

These are magic gloves, when Lisa puts them on she becomes a yard work machine!

With her gloves on Lisa hauled most of the 3.5 yards of gravel we used, that's about 40 loads with the wheel barrow.

The gravel is done, you can see the small pieces of concrete we left in there from the old step.

Any rain we get in the next two weeks will help settle the gravel, it will be nice to not have to walk around in mud while we build!

We'll have to be careful for the next week now that their is no step outside the door.

Looking at the layout gets us really excited for the project to be done, it's going to be great to sit on it in a few weeks.

Gregg, Piseth and I rocked out the beams, we used all 112 carriage bolts, man those were a pain to drill for.

Just after we started to hang the floor joists, this thing is way over built!

Not long after we got the framing finished it started to rain, we strung up the tarp so we could keep working.

Here is a stack of ipe staying out of the rain, ready to get cut, drilled and screwed.

Bright and early the next morning we started at it hard.

Gregg flush mounted the switch for the hidden outlet, we will be connecting under deck lights to it soon.

We had to relocate the garden hose, while we were at it we added a shut off inside the house.

Making more progress, it was raining off and on so we left the tarp up.

You can see the pipe we had to move.

Gregg did his magic around the gutter, I still need to replace the house's corner trim and siding.

Still some more trimming to do but mostly done.

I finished up the rest of the decking by the weekend and got the trimming done that Saturday morning.

Gregg suggested the old 22.5 degree cut on the tub trim, I think it was the right move, looks great.

The frame around the tub really sets it off.

It looks great and has a purpose too, the center section is removeable so you can access the tub's pumps.

I ripped a small piece of ipe to fit under the siding, it fills the gap perfectly.

I built a box out of scrap to cover the conduits coming out of the new panel, you can also see the mess I had to make to get the gutter to connect.

The color of the wood after we stain it will be a little lighter than the wet section you see here.

That switch controls the 50 ft of rope light that is hidden under the edge of the deck.

I was bored the other night so I built this flower box for the kitchen window out of some leftover Ipe, the flowers are in removeable plastic trays.

I finished the sanding last week and put down one coat of TWP116 for the finish, it brings out the red tones in the wood.

It also seems to do a good job of preventing the wood from absorbing the water, maybe a big squeegee would work better!

We picked up an umbrella for the table, it makes the whole deck feel less open

We were able to find a piece of stone to use as a step, it fits great but was a real pain to get back there, it weighs 400 pounds!

You can see the towel rack I built and the small storage box we found for the hot tub chemicals

I hung lights inside the umbrella and wired them into the deck so they come on when we turn on the under deck lights

A better picture of the flower box on the kitchen window, the flowers look great from the kitchen

The storm door is on order, hopefully it will be here soon

Now we can sit and relax in front of the fire, it seems to fit very well with the style of the deck and furnishings

This is the Weber Flame outdoor propane fireplace, it looks very real when it's burning and it doesn't make you smell like a campfire!

We decided to add stairs to the "utility" side of the deck, we've been jumping down alll this time

I still need to cover the pressure treated risers with Ipe, sand and stain to match

I was able to get the risers covered and the stain on, it will take some time for them to weather to match the deck though

I found these concrete coble stones and they finish off the bottom perfectly

It's now a year later and the stain is faded, we did a quick cleaning with the pressure washer and some oxalic acid and let it dry for a few days

The new coat isn't perfect but it looks much better than it did before, hopefully it lasts a bit longer too

I ran speaker wires into the crawl space for deck speakers when I ran the wires for the front living room speakers and just left them waiting for summer

We were going to get statue type speakers but are glad we choose these to mount up in the eves, you can hardly tell they're even up there

The wiring is hidden behind the corner trim and they share an amp with the speakers in the garage