"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Monday, September 1, 2014

Screwing Around

We have 30' of deck to lay. 

For some reason I thought it would be easy to do and I guess it is in the repetitive nature of the process. 

Lay the board.
Mark the end
Cut the board.
Pick the board back up and lay it again.
Drill the pilot holes.
Screw it down.

There's a lot of screwing going on around here this weekend@;)





The thing that makes us both slightly crabby is that it took us about 4 hours to lay 10' of deck. 

Really?  That's all we got done?

When I mentioned this to SM he said "We're doing it the hard way.  If we'd hired this out they'd have nailed it down with a gun and chopped off the ends all at once with a circular saw.  Easier, but not as nice as what we're doing."

I guess the heat isn't doing us any favors either.  We worked from 9-2 but I figure we wasted an hour what with lunch and sweat breaks. 

SM (as usual) is doing the bulk of the work with the chop saw and hopping in and out between the joists as he muscles crooked boards straight while I screw them down to hold it. 

It's funny...We bought premium boards for this.  You'd think a few of them would actually be straight.  When we do get a board that's straight we feel like we've hit the lottery.

So back at it today. 
93 yesterday with 96 forecast for today.
With a little luck we'll get another 10 feet completed.

Pictures when we're done, I promise.

No fun looking at a construction site with two old farts red faced and sweaty.  

2 comments:

  1. To get a picture of the two of you . . . all red and sweaty . . . you'd have to spent a lot more time teaching one of the dogs to take the picture!

    I guarantee the job would go faster if you weren't working in that awful, terrible, very bad HEAT! I know it's all what you get used to but my better half and I would die trying to do that physical work in your temperatures.

    Last but not least, yes, you WILL have a better job when it's all said and done than you would have gotten hiring it done. Plus you'll have the $$$ you saved to purchase cool libations (for a long time!) while sitting on and enjoying you lovely, new deck!

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  2. I agree with the previous statement plus screwing the boards down instead of using a power nailer will hold the boards longer and better. My guy says finding straight boards at the big box hardware stores is difficult. He finally found a small lumber yard that a lot of "professionals" use. Better quality wood but at a bit higher price.

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