Sorry I missed you guys. I had all good intentions of joining, but apparently you guys quit earlier than usual. I got busy putting away tools and stuff and then grabbed a Fat Tire after “quitting time”. Finished the stairs to the deck yesterday except for rails and started on that today. Don’t like the height, so again, I learn the lesson of “Do it right or do it again!” I’m a couple days from turning it over to the Artiste (Deb) for painting and staining. As much as I don’t like the implication of two-tone color schemes, it’s looking damn good so far. I’ve had a very busy year that was supposed to be full of hops and malt exploration. But when the deck is 9 feet off the ground and has visible rot on a joist under the walkway, you do what you gotta do to keep the family safe (including expanding by 4 feet on a deck that’s already at limits for a cantilever deck). On top of that expense, my roof decided 13 years out of 30 was long enough. It was a combination of medium quality materials and some pretty shoddy workmanship. A stray nail gave me fair warning right after we finished our kitchen renovation two years ago and it didn’t get any better. The previous contractor did very little of what I asked for repairs (with a blank check to do it). This time nearly 40% of the decking was replaced (right in the middle of my deck project). I feel like Tom Hanks and Shelley Long in “The Money Pit”. I spent way too much on the roof, but I am hoping the next one is someone else’s problem while the worms are chewing on my carcass.
