JBot Mania

It all began after some drinks in my backyard towards the end of a visit from Mom & Bill. After all the work that has happened in the last three weeks, I am struggling to even remember what that original visit was for… As we sat in the breeze and setting sun in my backyard atop the hill that designates my neighborhood as part of the “Hilltop” area, Bill reiterated something my father had been saying on many of his visits when he would wonder out to my shed, “We should put a deck back here,”.

After my father’s second or third insistence about the very same thing, I admit I had formulated some ideas in my head. I wanted it to wrap around the house so that I could actually walk easily from one side of the exterior to the other… and I didn’t want it to become a giant yard of wood. I decided that I wanted some flower beds incorporated into the deck structure. That should do it.

The three of us continued to talk over some Coronas and decided that in a month and a half, two weekends before July 4th, we would begin. One weekend to set the posts and one weekend to build the deck.

WEEK ONE - SETTING THE POSTS

Crew: Me, Bill, Mom, Patrick (a former co-worker and some might say “sucker” for agreeing to help)

Tip #1 - Renting an auger to dig holes does not necessarily help, as much as physically hurt you - unless you like working with something that feels like a jack hammer but is less effective on rocks and is five times as heavy

Could we have dug THIRTEEN post holes without an auger and done it in one day - maybe not. I’ll leave it up to the guys as to whether it was worth it. But as you can tell, we dug ALOT of post holes - all at least 3 - 4 feet deep - in New England rocky soil. Bill extracted some rocks two feet down that weighed at least 30 lbs. At some points we just left the holes as deep as they were when we reached another boulder. All were safely deep enough, of course.

Besides digging these beauts, we also had to fill them with concrete - concrete that we had to purchase, load, unload, mix, and pour. I don’t think my wheelbarrow will survive since it got pretty scratched up during the mixing process and then was left out in the rain to rust. Oopsie.

By the end of the day that started at about 9:30am and ended at about 6:30pm, we had accomplished our goal for the day. 13 post holes ready to go.

Here are a few post holes for the walkway from the driveway area to the backyard. As you can see from the slope, traversing this area up until this point wasn’t very appealing.

Here are some of the post holes in the main part of the backyard.

And yet some more post holes and a couple of those rocks I was talking about. They have been saved for later landscaping uses. The chairs are what we used to admire the unbelievable work we did.

WEEK TWO - FRAME THE DECK, LAY THE PLANKS, HAVE SOME BEERS AND CELEBRATE A JOB WELL DONE

Crew: Me, Mom, Bill, Dad and Ramon, Mike, Pat W., David

That’s right, you counted NINE people. Eight VERY generous people, and me. We had what can only be described as a cornucopia of tools, talent, and certainly ideas. And although some natural differences of opinion appeared every now and again, everyone worked hard and I only had to say “Fuck you” once.

I got to use my saw for the first time and many times after that. My dad was very sweet and made sure I was the first person to use my baby before he did anything with it. My mom says that he had a penchant for walking over and watching me for a while as I used it alone, but eventually was comfortable enough to let me continue unattended. Daddies are silly boys. And daughters sometimes hold their fingers a little too close to the blade.

I’m not 100% sure that a straw hat, stretch capris, and a shirt that reads “Think Globally: Act within local variable scope” is typical work wear but it got the job done. As you can see, I was pretty handy with my sliding compound miter saw. You can also see a nice contraption that my father constructed to make cutting large pieces a breeze. The first platform holds the saw in place while the second one is set to the exact height of the base of the saw so everything is level and easy peasy - as someone not in construction might say.

By the end of the day we were all definitely pooped, due mostly to the heat, but we worked hard and we worked smart (thanks to my mother’s “strategic guidance” i.e. slave driving)

Alas, we did not quite get as far as we thought, but as you can see, the deck turned out to be just a whee bit more massive than we had anticipated. The fact that we even got all of the joists in place is a miracle.

I feel like this picture doesn’t quite convey the size, but just the side “walkway” over there is 15 feet long and 10 feet wide. You could easily put a full lounge chair over there and still have room to walk. I might put some life preservers on the railing in that space and re-enact scenes from the Love Boat. Why? Because I can.

WEEK THREE - PUT DOWN THE DECKING, PUT UP THE RAILING, ASSEMBLE SOME STAIRS, HAVE SOME BEERS AND CELEBRATE A JOB WELL DONE

Crew: Me, Mom, Bill with a cameo by Dad and Barbara

Tip #2: Add at least one more day to any decking related estimates

The biggest issue with the work this time was probably the weather and maybe a shortage of people, although we did very well. One more person focused solely on decking along with my mom and myself could have been a big asset, but we didn’t think it was needed. Also, a bigger air compressor. Mine isn’t quite as powerful as my dad’s so using it to drill in bolts took quite a bit longer than it did using dad’s while building the deck frame.

We were, however, able to build out the flower beds with 4″x 4″s and complete 5/8 of the decking. I am now able to measure to that specificity thanks to all the work cutting decking. You can now actually walk on it and really see it taking shape. It’s very exciting.

We were able to get the walkway done:

as well as a good start of the main deck:

You can see the two flower beds running along the two sides of the house. Barbara suggested designated a portion of one for herbs. I like that (sounding like the Nissan commercial). I’m all about Cilantro, baby.

Bill very cleverly redirected the drain spout that was in the way of one of the flower beds. It should drain nicely under the deck and then down to the “lower hilltop” - meaning the next street down.

Along the side of the shed, we also left space for some holly bushes for even more green-tastic elements:

More importantly, though, was that we left room enough to get things like the lawnmower out of the shed.

And voila - you can.

We did run into some trouble when moving from the walkway area to the main deck. And by “we”, I mean Mom, Bill, and Dad while Barbara and I went to Home Depot for screws and to look at railing posts. The parts of the deck were “square” but not necessarily in reference to the same things or in reference to things that were themselves “square”. So, some reconnoitering happened. We decided that a little slit of decking would have to be custom cut to get everything going the right way again on the main deck area:

On an aesthetic note, I’m very happy with the variety of wood grain in this pressure treated lumber. All in all it could be very boring but it is shaping up to be quite interesting. I haven’t decided if I want to take on the headache of staining, but if I did, I’d use a darker color that would really bring out the natural grain. At the very least, I will be doing the ol’ Thompson’s Water Seal.

Alot of the real credit for the relative ease of this project goes to my fabulous Makita Sliding Compound Miter Saw. The best $500 I ever spent at Home Depot. It’s easy to operate, able to cut a wide variety of wood sizes, and it comes with a light and laser (although I cannot get the laser to work as of yet). The sliding action is what makes this tool invaluable. As you can see from the saw dust, it has put in alot of labor in these last couple of weeks. It will certainly do more as I begin moldings around the inside of the house.

**Tiny Update: As I took pictures for this entry I got excited again about working on the deck and getting ‘er done. So I decided to haul up the rest of the decking onto the deck to make work easier for next time. That would be… EIGHTEEN piece of 16 FOOT decking. All by myself. I rock. Maybe I will measure, cut, and install another row this week, all by myself. Scandal!

And so we look to weeks four and five to hopefully be the final ones. Week Four: finish the decking and start the railing. Week Five: finish the railing and build some steps.

Stay tuned!