This is a little off from what I usually post but I thought you might like to see what I do outside of art and running.
The Big Move
We moved to Texas in 2000 to be closer to our daughter and her expanding family. We found a fantastic house within 15 minutes of her and bought it. The interior was dated but perfect for our needs. The outside however was pretty much an empty yard. There was an old shed in the back and an old car port under a big oak tree in the side yard that the prior owner had used to tinker on his cars. On this blank canvas I envisioned a brick path leading to a large deck with a roof.
The Blank Canvas
The first phase of the project was to build the brick path from our back door around to that car port in the side yard. This entailed digging a trench 3 feet wide by 12 inches deep for the length of the path, which would split off in two branches, one leading to the shed and another leading to the small grill area of the future deck. The digging was hard and laborious and I did it while training for the Boston Marathon, which made it all the harder. There was a time when work was stopped due to rain that flooded the trench. However, it was a great time playing in the muddy pond for our granddog Annie.
Before – grass, dirt and an old carport
Path Outline
Muddy Annie!
Gravel and Sand
Then came big loads of gravel, sand, and brick. I used two different color bricks with the highlight color forming and X again and again the length of the path.
Path Complete!
Once the path was complete I took a break and focused on other part of the back yard, primarily creating border gardens. I started working on the actual deck in the summer of 2021. This first meant planning it all out on paper and figuring out layout, materials and costs. The deck was designed with 3 distinct areas, a small grill area, a large sitting area and a medium size dining area. It was quite big, 400 sq feet to be exact.
The Big Project
Physically the first thing to do was to get electricity out to the deck area. I had a electrician put a new circuit breaker in and wired it to the outside of the house. From there I dug a trench across the yard to the fence. I installed conduit, wiring and a plug over at the fence so I could have power while building and afterward for lighting the deck.
The deck area before
Then it was on to regrading the side yard to be flat. It wasn’t far off from that but it had to be completely flat and just like the path, I had to dig down about 8-12 inches to lay the foundation cinder blocks that the deck would sit on. Once again, hard and laborious and in the middle of a very hot summer!
Throughout the construction I kept thinking the phase I was in had to be the physically hardest part to build so it would just get easier as I went along. This was not true. Every phase turned out to be more physically demanding than the one before it.
Foundation Blocks in Progress
Framing in Progress
After laying the foundation blocks (approx. 36 of them, or maybe 63 of them, I forget now.) I started to build the frame section by section with 2×6 pressure treated pine. Doing it by section was easier to figure things out without being overwhelmed (though honestly it was never not overwhelming!)
Decking in Progress
Then came the actual decking. I used real wood, not plastic or composite, because of the price and environmental reasons. Once again I built by section and made each area distinct by creating a border around each one. Filling in each area was pretty straight forward until I got to the diagonal section and that took a lot of precise measuring. That was a challenge but I did it without making any big wrong cuts. It probably was the easiest part of the project.
Roof Framing in Progress
Once that was done came part 3 of the project, the roof. The carport was basically just a slanted roof over dirt but it was very low, so much so that when the raised deck was taken into consideration in nobody would be able to stand up straight. So the old roof was torn down, and the posts that held it up were taken out as well because they were in the wrong spots. The back of the roof was even with the fence so instead of putting posts there I used the aluminum posts that held up the fence and simply added extensions to them. I had to build a frame for the roof just like I had for the deck itself but this was a lot harder because the roof was at an angle and that meant precision measuring once again.
Staining in Progress
Once the frame was up it was time to stain the entire thing. Before staining I had to wash and clear the wood, which meant using a pressurized pump sprayer to get the wood ready to take the stain. For the stain itself I used a soft car wash brush on a pole to do the entire deck and most of the roof (before putting on the roofing material).
Roof Cover in Progress
The next step was to put on white corrugated plastic roofing, the wavy sort. I took a long time to get them aligned properly, adhered with screws so they wouldn’t come loose in a storm. We’ve had 3 severe wind storms since then and the roof hasn’t moved an inch!
Furnishing
While I was building Linda was shopping. She found a very nice outdoor seating area that fit perfect. She then added 2 rocking chairs and a small table. The area now seats 10 so it’s great for family gatherings.
Aluminum Cladding
The final touch was to clad the bottom of the deck, where it met the ground, with strips of the metal roofing I had taken down from the old car port.
The Deck Complete!
I finished the deck and roof and had it ready just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas, 2021. I was very excited to show it off, especially to my out of town family who was coming over the holidays. But the powers that be decided a cold winter rain would fall for most of thanksgiving week and Christmas week so showing it off basically consisted of people walking out, looking at it, saying cool and then going back inside. It would not be until over a year later that a planned family gathering happened when the weather cooperated and we were able to sit out and enjoy the deck!
The entire project, Path, Deck and Roof took a little less than a year, with about 5 months for the path in 2020 and 6 months for the deck and roof in 2022. I did the entire thing myself with the exception of help from my wife Linda on the setting of the roof posts into concrete one afternoon.
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