The Finished Product

Beautiful Halloween weather meant time to finish the deck and that's just what happened! Next year will bring with it the big job of staining all of that cedar! The plan is to also install concrete landscaping curbing beginning at the front corner of the house and running it along side the house and around the deck along with various plants/shrubs and rocks. For now, the big projects are complete as we prepare for another relaxing ND winter.

Deck Update #8

Well, all that remains is to enclose the rear side of the deck in similar fashion to the other three sides and lay the deck boards for the stairs. Almost complete. Hopefully completion comes sooner than later!

Deck Update #7

It was a long weekend, but after 20 hours of hard work, all of the railing was installed as well as the stairs that connect the upper level to the lower level. The stairs occupied most of our time.

All that remains is to put stairs down to the ground from the lower level. These stairs will start on the right side of the bench and go all the way around the corner and end at the post where the railing starts. Once the steps are installed, deck boards will run vertically from the deck surface down the ground to cover the green-treated rim joists and the ugly posts underneath the deck (you wont' be able to see anything underneath the lower level).

The following photos were taken right before dark as the rain began. Perhaps we will replace these photos with daylight photos if it ever decides to quit raining. Oh, enjoy the Halloween spider web in the window that is lit up as well! Hopefully another update will be available next weekend!!

Deck Update #6

Yesterday we constructed the stairs to connect both levels of the deck and finished the upper deck. This afternoon we will hopefully complete the lower level railing, leaving the stairs to the ground and closing up the bottom of the lower level for the following weekend.

After taking a few weekends off from deck building due to a busy schedule, it was back to work this weekend. We were able to get all of the deck boards installed and are now ready for stairs and railings which we hope to tackle next weekend. Once those items are complete we will enclose the lower level and call it finished (until the fun staining project in the spring of course...)

You'll notice in a couple of the following pictures that were taken from the patio door looking out, that it is hard to see the edge of the upper level. Better get those railings up! If you click on the pictures to enlarge them, you'll notice inspector Riley looking out the patio door.