Thursday October 6th 2011

I’ve a project started that I would really like to work on…the deck… I can’t start early, it is to dark, wet, cold, etc…

Sparky is getting a little more used to “Bud”? the big black dog.  I think Bud is OK as far as I can tell.  Sure is sad though when people dump dogs. We feel sorry for Bud and have been feeding him.  He is sticking around.  When we finally went out and I started working on the deck, well, I was pulling nails etc, don’t want boards with nails laying around I have stepped on a couple of nails and it isn’t fun.  Anyway, Sparky and Bud got to playing, tag I think, and Sparky likes to run so Bud chases him and when he get catches up to him, Sparky rolls, unfortunately it is usually in the dirt and not the grass.  I will have to give him a bath tonight because the grass is still wet and the dirt sticks pretty good to him.

Finally got to work on the deck.  Mind you, this is the first deck I’ve built.  I don’t have plans to work by I just know that I wanted a 10x16 foot deck. Well, the old one is 10x9 feet so I want to extend it to have some room to put chairs or what ever. I think I have a picture of where I started this morning…

This is one of the hardest parts I had to do was get the frame up and level. Well, I messed up on the level a couple of times so I messed up on cutting the 4x4 right and had to do some readjusting…

The treated boards are heavy and just this part took a long time to get up to this height.

This picture is when I finally finished, it was getting dark and I would like to have gotten more done but tomorrow is another day…

I think I did OK for my first time and got this much done in one day. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get enough boards on so we can use the back door.  We don’t like using the front door.  Where the bucket is sitting in the picture above is about where the old deck ended so we will have quite a bit more room.  The steps are the old ones but they fit almost perfectly and I will have to get more wood for the steps but they will last until I can do that.  I forgot the ten foot 2x4  that goes on the end and I hope that I can get a couple in the car tomorrow when I get off work.  I need to look at one of Cole’s decks to see how he did the top rail and spindles, then I should be able to finish it!

Well, tonight is another night I am going to take it easy. My shoulders hurt again so I took another pill.  Maybe I will get used to this, nah, I don’t think so…

I have had a very productive day, the camper didn’t get waxed but tomorrow is another day!!  Night Y’all…