Razing the Deck

A lot has been going on here lately. I defended my Ph.D. thesis, and will hopefully start a new job in early July - hooray for ending my (very long) stint as a student!!!!! I feel like I have been a student for my whole life... wait, I HAVE been a student for the whole life. I guess it would be an understatement to say that I am ready to be done. 

In house-related news, we had two nice Saturdays in a row, so we've been working hard on a (big!) outdoor project. We tore down the deck!!!!

Here is what we started out with:

As you can see, there is some major wonkiness going on in the floorboard area... which made us VERY nervous whenever we walked on the deck. Upon closer inspection (ie looking under the deck), we found the culprit:

That's right, the deck was literally splitting down the middle. Structural integrity - not so good.  

So, to remedy the problem, we had a deck razing party! (Thanks for your help Mom, Dad, Rozi, & Steve... and yes, Eric did help one of the days, though somehow he didn't end up in any of the pics.)

Railings were first to go, followed by the floorboards, which came off like butter (well, almost) with the help of a 36" FatMax crowbar (no, seriously, that is the name of the crowbar, as evidenced by the huge text of said name emblazoned across the handle). 

Next came the stairs and joists. 

(doesn't my mom look like a monkey in this pic?!? - sorry mom, I had to!)

Almost there!

Meanwhile, my little sis, Rozi, was helping to remove the rocks from around the stump in the front yard. Since then, Eric took an ax to the stump and we leveled it out and added grass seed. Hopefully the grass will fill in quickly. 

Okay, back to the deck. Before we knew it, there was very little left:

Since the deck joists actually protrude out from the house, we sawed them off for now rather than leave gaping holes in the side of the house. They will be removed and the holes filled in before we start building the new deck. There are also 2 more posts that we have yet to be removed from the ground. But, other than that, you might just ask, 'What deck?'. (Okay, the very large pile of used lumber at the side of the house makes that pretty obvious too.)

It is amazing how much more light comes in through the lower bedroom window now that the deck is out of the way. We are in the process of designing the new deck, and allowing light to come through that window is definitely a consideration. It is so exciting to come up with ideas for the new deck - can't wait to see how it turns out!