Part3-Oh look! It's a real deck!

EDIT: The inspector came and the deck passed with flying colors!


For all intents and purposes, the deck is finished.

The inspector from the Building Department is coming on Tuesday. We have to leave the bottom open so he can see underneath it but we are not anticipating any problems. We built it as close to code as we possibly could!

One of the last things to do was putting this handrail on.

After the inspector looks at it and declares it good we can finally close up the bottom and put our table and chairs on it. Not that we haven't been sitting on it already, it's just that according to the city you're not supposed to do that until after the final inspection.

Each phase of building this deck had it's own set of problems we had to puzzle out. The easiest part was by far the railings between the posts and the balusters! I helped as much as I could but Rich did the majority of the work while I was at work!

Kudos and all the credit goes to my hard working husband!

I'll post a final picture at the end of this week when it's all closed up on the bottom.

Until then.

The Deck-Part 2

So just to clarify, we own our house but not the lot that it sits on. It's in a manufactured home community. Although we have every right to move our house out if we want to,  we have no intention of ever doing that.  It's expensive, and  hard on the house. Our walls are drywall and probably wouldn't hold up well to being rocked and rolled! Plus they have to cut it into two pieces! This deck will be a good selling point when the time comes for us to leave.

After taking all day Saturday to put the joists up we put a level all over the place to make sure everything was plumb and even before putting the deck boards on. It actually has a very slight tilt downward towards the street, which is not at all noticeable but good so the water will run off when it rains.

The next step was to screw 22 boards on top of the joists to make the surface of the deck. Luckily they came pre-cut to 12 feet so it was just a matter of making sure they were straight and screwing them on.

All during the day on Sunday we probably had 10 people stop and tell us how nice it looked! A few asked if Rich would build a deck for them and could not believe it when he told them he had never built a deck before! He also said no to building any decks for anyone else!

  

After we got all of the boards nailed on we put a trim board around the edge.

It's far from perfect but I think it looks pretty good so far!


The next step is the stairs, which is probably the toughest part of a deck and Rich has been struggling with them for a few days.

They're made and attached but they are not exactly right.

We decided to hold off on them and concentrate on the railing for now,

That's for the next post!

Until then.

The Deck: Part 1

As I mentioned in a previous post, after messing around with different companies about putting in a deck we decided to build a 10 x 12 deck on our house ourselves.

Once again, when I say "we" I mostly mean Rich. He's doing the majority of the work!

Here's what we've done so far:

 We only rent the lot our house is on so we have to request permission to make any major changes to it. So back in May I drew up this  rudimentary plan and we submitted it along with an application and $40 (it's ridiculous; everyone wants money!). It took a few weeks but we got permission to build our deck. They just said not to cut the two pine trees in front down which we had no intention of doing anyway,

After messing around and wasting a good part of the summer with deck builders that either didn't show up to give us a quote or wanted way too much money we decided to do it ourselves.

So of course we had to get a permit from the building department of the city also!  We filled out and submitted a permit request to Plymouth Twp., along with $85 because, you know, everyone wants money. But we  got the permit approved within a week with some changes the inspector made on it.

We measured out the distance for the posts and marked where to dig using a template we created.

and rented a post hole digger.

We dug 4 post holes at 42 inches deep each! Rich was working the post hole digger and I was scooping the dirt away from the hole so it wouldn't fall back in anytime he pulled the gizmo out. Then we had to use the shop vac to suck the dirt out of the holes because they were so deep!

I won't go into all of the details but it took all day because he kept having to dig out big rocks, and by the end of the day he was beyond exhausted!

The inspector came out and declared them good!

We ordered and got all the wood and everything we need for the deck.


Rich put cement in the holes to make a footing and when the cement was dry they were ready for the posts.

Two of the posts are not in dirt but on the sidewalk in front of our house so he attached the bracket for them to sit in to the cement.

On Thursday and Friday he cut the posts to the right height and cemented them in the holes.


On Friday after  I got home from work we made the beams by screwing two huge boards together and attached them to the posts.

It took us all day Saturday to put the joists between the beams,

and today we screwed all of the decking on top.

But that's for the next post!

Until then...

Midland MI: Dow Gardens and The Tridge

On Tuesday we took a day trip to Midland Michigan. In my whole life in this state I don't think I ever went to Midland. Probably because it's in the middle of the state and we tend to gravitate towards the edges where the great lakes are.

Anyway, Midland does have a few things to offer.

Dow Chemical company is there and pretty much owns the town and probably employs the majority of the people who live there. It's a huge conglomerate and is spread all over Midland. Kind of like what University of Michigan is to Ann Arbor!

We wanted to visit Dow Gardens

 Dow Gardens was started in 1899 by Herbert Dow, founder of The DowChemical Company. The Gardens, originally developed on eight acres of flat, sandy land, provided a creative outlet for Herbert Dow and his interest in agriculture and design.-from the website

There is a sculpture and a butterfly garden right at the entrance.

There is actually sculptures all over the place but I didn't take any pictures. They were nice but I'm not really into them. 

It's about 110 acres now of beautiful gardens and streams. 

We even found a small waterfall!

And there's a canopy walk through the trees.

We left Dow Gardens, had lunch and then stopped by The Tridge before heading home.

It's exactly what the name is; A bridge that goes three ways!


It was a nice way to spend the day.

The rest of the week is devoted to spending time with the grandkids and getting ready to build our deck. 

We got the permit from the city, ordered all the supplies we need  and will be digging the post holes this weekend.

Can't wait to get started!!

Until the next time...