All Hands on Deck

The day had finally come. We’d been walking on piece of plywood, some that overlapped all over our deck, for three years. The upstairs deck was no exception. It was time to purchase our engineered decking, which would keep us from having to re-stain it each year.

In case you didn’t see or maybe I didn’t mention it, but we have a lot of decking, an almost three-quarter wraparound deck plus the upstairs. Most of this is covered but there is a decent portion that’s not.

The sheer volume and weight had us concerned if our trailer could handle it. Most pieces were ten to twenty feet in length. Those big ones, Jer and I had to carry together, not just because they are heavy, but because they are flexible unlike regular wood. They need to be carried on edge to keep them from bowing. Jer and I would pull them as he was ready for them.

As always, I thought this would be a fairly quick job…wrong again. Jer framed each section, which looks great but took a long time as he worked through the process. The screws are hidden but for those that couldn’t be hidden, it was my job to hammer the plugs in. My weekend completion estimation did not match Jer’s more accurate estimation of three weekends.

By now, I’m learning to go with the flow a little better and not get disappointed about the timing of things. Instead, I’m working on being thankful for the progress being made. Jer is kind of a perfectionist when it comes to building but I’m grateful because things are done right. Don’t get me wrong, both Jer and I know all the imperfections in each aspect of the work we’ve done but most people would miss them because of how the overall outcome looks.

Yay! No more tripping over plywood or possibly falling into open holes. We are pleased with our choice and a job well done.