The demo project that started on Mother's Day finished up with Phase 1 construction by the end of the summer. Well, most of it was done by early June, with finishing touches dragged out through the rest of the summer as our motivation and interest began to wane.
Check out the demo work here
Considering neither of us are trained in the construction arts, we're pretty pleased with our outcomes! About 3/4 of the way through we remembered that there was a table top model chop saw in the basement attached conveniently to its own stand... That would have made for about a day's less work had we remembered that in the beginning instead of using a circular hand saw and jigsaw...
And thanks to Dad's corded drill, we were only sore for 2 days not a week when it came time to install 500+ screws in the floor boards and posts. I'm not sure if it was due to our use or just the drill's time to die, but before we were done the drill's chuck would not release the bit. Needless to say, adding to our deck project cost was a new drill from Dad. 😬
The COVID related lumber prices were a bit painful, but we figure that we said at least 1/2 of what the total cost would have been had we hired someone to do the work. Other than finishing touches, like the post caps, the bulk of the work was completed in about two and a half weekends. Adam will attest that they were HARD weekends and that more than once I had to trust his judgement in deciding to stop for the day. On a few of they were barely seeing straight when we stopped and continuing on could have easily resulted in an injury requiring stitches or worse!
Phase 2? raised gardens between the front deck and side entrance, and some landscaping decisions that will likely include some manner of tree thinning out front. In the meantime I have plenty to think about and sketch out before spring!
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