Before and…In Progress: Back Deck

One of the things we knew we were going to have to replace when we bought our house was the back deck. The wood was extremely weathered and splintering, some of the spindles were loose and in general, it was old. We solved the problem temporarily last summer by putting down a big outdoor rug that covered a lot of the area:

It made it so we didn’t have to worry as much about wood spikes in bare feet. But as spring approached this year (actually what spring? It’s 40 degrees today!) we knew it was time to tackle it. Luckily, my handy brother-in-law (of kitchen fame) and my dad offered to come down from VT and help. If you ask me, it was really that they were looking for an excuse to use their tools. Same with Jason. But anyway, we picked a weekend in April (which was last weekend/Easter weekend) and Jason started the prep.

The week before, he and Berg tackled the demo.

All ready for new planks.

One of the nice bonuses of this deck project has been that it has turned into a complete backyard makeover. You can see Jason is taking down the old swingset that came with our house. We originally thought it would be great to have but parts of it were broken and it wasn’t in great shape. So, buh-bye swingset!

Just yesterday Jason seeded and watered so hopefully that backyard will be green in no time. In his words, “I’m going to grow grass back there if it’s the last thing I do!”

Where was I. Oh the deck. After the demo, Home Depot came to deliver the wood. We went with the pressure-treated stuff vs. composite, basically because it was half the cost and we don’t plan to be in this house until the end of time.

Jason moved all the wood into the backyard until build day. Which looked like this, in no particular order.

 So where does all this leave us. It’s not quite finished – Jason needs to put the spindles up and we want to lattice the sides (not pictured). We also have to wait to stain it or paint it for, like, months. Until it has had enough exposure to the elements or something? I could look up the reason but don’t care enough. So without further ado…here is where we are at.

BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

BEFORE
IN PROGRESS

And some stairs shots, not the same angle but you get it.

A couple other highlights besides the death of the swingset. Behold, this awful picture from before we moved in.
Arrow denotes the “Before” area. It looks like this now.
Jason used the old weathered deck wood to build up a bed, plant trees, and mulch it. We are thinking about doing this around the perimeter of the entire yard to hide the fence instead of replacing it (it’s in worse shape than the deck was). But it’s a significant investment in trees so we will see. 
Jason also repurposed the old deck wood to add some character to the back basement entrance of our house. He laid the planks over the existing bumpy cement to create a new walkway.

It looks pretty neat and we talked about chipping all the moss out and painting the little stone retaining walls on each side. 
So the moral of this post is, we’ve done a lot but there is still a lot left!

2 thoughts on “Before and…In Progress: Back Deck”

  1. Well, a lot of good came out from that deck renovation. Good thing your dad and you brother-in-law were there to help you rebuild your deck, and take care of other necessary work. Also, you now have room for more plants, or even just an area to let the grass grow and add color to your yard. Anyway, good luck with your upcoming home improvement projects. Good day!Betsy Keller @ Above All Roofing Inc.

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