A Deck Story

Here is a boring little story about the evolution of our deck. It isn't too interesting so I will let the pictures tell the story and will keep my comments to a minimum.

The Beginning

A two level, open concept deck. From 1994 to 2012, "this" was our deck:

After replacing almost each and every deck board over the course of time, our deck was rotting from the bottom up. My Second Son offered to build a one level deck. He started and finished the job one weekend while I was away:

September, 2012

It is very nice, isn't it?

Sept 3 2012

We got talking about the ugly step and my son ever so generously offered to alter the existing deck so decking replaced the step. Awesome! There was a slight glitch in spacing of the top step but we deemed it "good enough" and carried on.

Sept 16, 2012

Over the winter, we devised a plan to turn the deck area into a penned dog area. Phase one of this plan was to build a deck railing:

April 29, 2013

Voila!! My son commited yet another weekend and look at the progress:

May 2, 2013

Phase 2 of this plan was to enlarge a "dog run" area beside the house:

May 28, 2013

... and create a gating system where we could pen the dogs just in the "dog area" alone or give them access to the back door/gate area as well. This worked like a charm:

May 28, 2013

Six years after the deck was built, I FINALLY stained it. It felt brand new again. I was very pleased with our renewed deck:

August 5, 2019

Then five days later, came "The Fall". After years of warning people to watch their step due to the spacing on the deck stairs, my almost-90 year old uncle fell. Thankfully he came out relatively unscathed but my guilt factor was high. I may have wrote a little blog about it ...

Less than two weeks later, I came home to this:

August 23, 2019

The mis-spaced stair situation has been corrected and our deck is a legitimately safe place to walk.

Except seven years of memorizing the need to allow for the mis-spaced step is engrained deeply into my muscle memory. My knees go to jelly each time I step up or down our new and improved steps. I just may be the first to fall down our new steps. But I will be the last to complain. I promise!

I am so pleased our steps are up to "code" still looking mighty fine after a few minor adjustments to the existing decking.

I am eternally grateful.