One of Many

I am so proud of Matt. One of our many projects was to build a gigantic deck off the back of the house. Let me tell you, I would never have called Matt handy before, but he is now Bob Villa in my eyes :)

The planning probably took just as long, if not longer, than the actual build. Second step, delivery of materials. That, I must say, did not go off without a hitch. Lowes brought the special order, but didn't deliver any of the special order pieces, and failed to tell us that they were not being delivered as planned. Oh, minor kink since my dad was driving up from out of town to build this with Matt. No worries, after a day of calling literally 30 lumber places who laughed at us every time we asked if they had any of the boards in stock...we were able to locate the boards we needed and they were only a 1.5 hour drive away. Oh, just kidding - the boards were 24 feet long - no way to get them -

After lots, and I mean lots, of frank talk with Lowes, they did deliver - literally- they had their truck drive the 1.5 hour trip and were able to deliver part of the wood 2 days later and the rest of it several days later...so my dad and Matt were able to squeak by and finish most everything before Matt left out of town on business.

Third step- build - well not really - Matt had to plan out exactly where all the support beams would go, and dig post holes - fill with concrete - and attach the posts to these babies. Yep, there were 16! And if you know anything about Austin - you know that we literally sit on rock - so digging these 16+ inches was no simple task. We did luck out...as our sprinkler guys were finishing up reworking the lines - they offered to pour the concrete for Matt, so in about 15 minutes they had all the concrete mixed and poured saving Matt hours of work.

Next up went all the ledger boards and frame. And if you can't tell by now, our yard has all kinds of slopes and hills (that seem subtle -that is until you build something that needs to be level). Again - props to Matt on the planning!

Dad - couldn't have done this without you! My dad really is Bob Villa in his own right. This man built two rooms onto our house growing up - and renovated our cabin that was seriously damaged by fire. He knows just about everything there is to know about everything! We were so glad to have him here, and although I tried to keep him from doing to much - he of course did too much! He really did help Matt to have confidence in the things he had never done before and taught him a thing or two along the way.

It was so fun to see the joists go up and to see it begin to take shape.

Everybody pitched in! Including me. I couldn't do much - obviously no lifting boards - but I kept the kids out of the way as best I could - filled up water and tea glasses - sorted screws - helped snap chalk lines - and caught smaller boards as they fell off from being sawed. The boys counted and lined up literally hundreds of screws as Grandpa and Dad screwed in the deck boards.

Even when Matt had to leave for work - dad was out there working. We kept telling him - we didn't ask for his help so he could be our slave while Matt was gone - but he kept going like the energizer bunny. Shhh, don't tell him, but I think he kind of liked all the hard work - and we sure appreciated it!

Whoo hoo - after 3 or 4 days this is what we had! Not finished, but we could walk on it - and envision it! After many little snafoos along the way - we were thrilled to be this far and have done it ourselves!

Just after Easter weekend - Matt began to work on the railing. I had to get a little action shot in here! There was so much sawing, hammering, drilling, screwing, and leveling!

Bob The Builder.

Benji the destroyer

Don't be fooled by this darling little boy - he chewed and ate just about everything involved in the build - even the neighbors skill saw electrical cord - oh yes - I almost killed him - he is lucky to be alive. Just kidding. No - really.

Matt completed all the rest of the deck all by his lonesome. Again - I tried to give a helping hand when I could - but it was probably mostly annoying to Matt who just wanted to finish - instead of hearing me say - "is that a little loose, or crooked -or does that need to be tightened" I do have to make a comment about my hubby's rockin calves though. Check out those muscles! Whew!

Hallelujah! It's finished - well - almost - the stairs proved to be a big pain - but now they are finished too! Thank you Matt and Dad for building this awesome deck! Now all we need is landscaping - hmm -that will have to wait till the fall - or at least until Benji the destroyer learns some manners :)