Deck be Done!

It's taken four full weekends, but we can now proudly say we have built a deck! We can't say it's been easy and not back breakingly difficult at times, but we can certainly say we've enjoyed the challenge and are just a little bit chuffed with our very first serious renovation project.

Last weekend we put in some seriously hard yards to finish laying all 54 rows of timber- pre-drilling more than 1500 holes before individually screwing them all into place.




It wasn't without hiccoughs! One of the timber bearers was slightly bowed so when we tried to lay down the pattern of the timber there was a very large bump in the middle. Thankfully Steve was able to "borrow" a planer from his work which saved us several hours of sanding (we probably wasted about an hour trying that option)


And then of course, we had the inevitable situation of getting down to the final few rows and realising they wouldn't fit without halving the width of one of the rows. We had to get all McGuyver and create a means of cutting it without a table saw and without a table. The result was nothing short of genius! (if we may say so ourselves). We screwed a circular saw onto a pallet! Simple but effective.

But probably the greatest little invention was Steve's spacer device. We needed a way to create a spacer between the timber rows. Turns out all we needed was a piece of wood and a nail!

All in all we're pretty happy with the result. While there are still some other things we want to add - like a step at the end leading into the garden, a bar ledge kind of like this, some screening to match the rest of the house, add some lighting like this and then of course we have to furnish it!

Check out the before and after pics!



Practice makes perfect....

Living rent free at my mum's place as we diligently save for a home deposit is wonderful. We're one week away from opening our next "milestone wine. So when Mum asked both Steve and I to help build a deck she's been wanting to construct for years we jumped at the chance. Not only as an attempt to thank Mum for letting us stay, but it's also our very first attempt at renovating and building something substantial!

The deck is to fill a void under the house that enters onto the backyard. It's always been an empty space that's been screaming out for attention.

It's very handy that Steve is a mechanical engineer - for starters, Steve designed the deck and had drawings done up at his work. He wanted to try a timber and steel combination... something a little like this...

Steve got all the preparations ready for this weekend - ordering the steel, timber and had the steel cleats laser cut. The only problem... we don't own any tools. So off to the store we went first thing on Saturday morning. It's been something Steve has been desperate to begin, I on the other hand - not that fussed!

We ended up buying a welder and assorted accessories including welder protective gear, an angle grinder, a die grinder, tool box, paint, primer, paintbrushes, rollers, sandpaper and probably a lot more - it got to the point when I could no longer shop for tools. I suggest Bunnings and Trade Tools should have a "lady seat" much like the "man chair" in the change rooms of clothing stores. 

Mum was around for the weekend to help me out with painting the steel poles and steel bearers while Steve cut down and welded the bearers ready for installation next weekend.

We managed to prime all the poles except one due to the height (we may need to buy a big ladder- yay more shopping!). We got one coat of the Dulux gloss black done and it looks fantastic. It's so strange to see how much of a difference just a coat of paint makes to a space. 

Steve has cut down and welded two of the four cleats. He says his welds are getting better and better each go. And as someone who has absolutely no idea what a good or bad weld looks like, I was just happy to celebrate in his success!

Magic, right?!

I'm pretty proud of what we've done so far but I'll be honest we're learning a lot by error. 

A couple of things I've deduced so far:

*don't paint above your head cause paint will drip into your eye

* paint in your eye really hurts and makes your eyelashes stick together

* measure twice, cut once isn't just a catchy phrase!

And I'm sure they'll be many more things to learn before the project is complete.

We have a public holiday on Wednesday so we'll be back on the tools.