Adventures in Deck Repair, Part 2

Hi, Gang!

Well, it's mid-day Friday, and this is my first chance to sit at my workstation.  Started the day at Al and Josie's...Mom needed some bloodtests done for her upcoming Doctor's appointment.  Then errands for them, errands for me, and yard work.  The crocuses are popping up, but we couldn't see them for all the fall leaves in the flower beds. I'm tired --- worn out! --- but it's a GOOD worn out for a change!

ANYway, I promised more news about the Deck project we have going on, so...

The delivery men showed up about 7:45am yesterday.  The contractor followed at 8:30, and promptly began tearing up the old deck.  Perhaps now would be a good time to show the "Before" pics.

This is what the deck looked like when be bought the house in 2004:

Witin a year, all that pretty (?) blue paint had peeled off, so JD and I stripped it all down and repainted. And added the canopy and lighting, etc.  Here it is in the summer of 2005:

On October 15th 2005, we were hit with the remnants of Hurricane Katrina.  And we flooded out --- BIG time!  (I'll tell you more about the damage THAT caused to the house some other day). High winds completely destroyed the canopy, and the freshly painted deck floor looked pretty raggedy.

We wanted to fix it, but here was the problem:  we had to make repairs to the (once-upon-a-time 'finished') basement first, and that took 10 months, many thousands of $$$, and lots of tears to complete.

So, fast-forward to 2011. Five years worth of "Weather" had reduced the deck to a mass of gray splinters.  No walking barefooted out there any longer!

This is what it looked like on Wednesday:

Naturally, when they started ripping up the old floor yesterday, some structural damage and poor craftsmanship was exposed, so...  they spent the remainder of the day beefing up the support columns via concrete footings and support beams.    UP goes the cost estimate!!!

 $$$  Cha-Ching $$$

Today went better (well, mostly). The columns for the roof went up, and the new stairs got halfway done!

 Old Stairs

The beginnings of the new stairway:

 As you can see, the new stairs are about twice as wide as the old, and are no longer one steep flight!

We LIKE this!!!

Then, of course, the other shoe always has to drop.

The estimate measurements taken did not include square footage for the two landings or the steps.

$$$  Cha-Ching!  $$$

More on Monday...

xoxoxo, clare