A lot of work got done today and now we are 99.9% finished with the deck.
this morning we laid down the long board that was going along the side of the house by the fence with our neighbor. I put a 45 on one end and screwed the corner down. I then had Michelle pulled the other end of the board and pull it towards the deck while I screwed additional screws in. This is the only way we knew to straighten it out. Once installed, it looked pretty nice!
The next step was to start cutting 45° angles in the remaining picture frame boards. Michelle treated each cat with a coating of wax to protect the boards.
I always get nervous making these cuts and even though I try my best but there's still room for growth. But in the end we were happy with what we ended up with!
we used our remaining piece of red mangarus to put a fascia on the back side of the step in the rear of the deck. No one will ever see it, but I will when I go to get something out of the storage area and it's a nice finishing touch the rim of the deck.
we screwed every picture frame board in one at a time. This is a photo of me inserting the last screw into the deck.
The rest of the day was spent gluing plugs and pounding them into the screw holes. This is very monotonous work but Michelle helped me out by picking out the plugs prior to installation. All I had to do was pound them in with a hammer and a block of wood.
this is a photo of me pounding the plug into the last hole on the surface of the deck.
We are very excited with the results and can't wait for the furniture we've ordered. By the way, I can confirm we are starting to go crazy with this project because I lost my tape measure three times today. Not sure how that's even possible since I'm only in the front yard or the backyard but it happened.
I took a few photos of the deck before the sunset.
and then sat down for a drink and Michelle took a picture of me staring off into the horizon, relaxing while enjoying the fruits of our labor.
Tomorrow we will Sand the plugs we installed and apply the final touches of oil to protect the wood. After that, I just need to install a couple of lights and this project is officially done!
