Our first big project at the house is constructing a deck out back.
This is the backside of the house. The top row of windows is our main floor. As you can see on the sides, the yard slopes down quite a bit which makes the bottom floor a walkout basement. The right window on the bottom is a finished bedroom but the door and left window are a part of the unfinished space in the basement (poorly done drywall and concrete floors).
We essentially live on the main floor of the house and only go to the basement for laundry. Joe has his bow target practice and other random guy things down there but it's essentially a big storage space for now (5 year project is to finish it all off).
As you can guess, to access the backyard, we either have to go outside the front and walk around or walk down to the basement and out the sliding door. Not very functional. We even have to keep our grill in the garage and wheel it out whenever we want to use it.
See the window second in from the right? That is the window that looks out from our eat in space in the kitchen. The skinny windows flanking the chimney are in our attached living room. That window in the kitchen will be removed and a sliding door will be installed to walk out onto a second story deck which will cover our current patio.
When we're all said and done, we'll essentially have two outdoor spaces.....the deck open above and a covered patio below. Phase 2 will include a paver patio, firepit, landscaping and maybe some retaining walls extending from our current boring concrete patio.
That right window is what's being removed and the deck will extend about at the left edge of the fireplace all the way to the edge of this picture. The dimension comes out to be 20X14. HUGE! Plenty of space for the grill and probably a table to seat 8 and no shortage of walking/playing room. And luckily our yard is ginormous so there will be plenty of grass space to run around in as well as our swing set.
Since the project is being done completely by us, it's slowly but surely coming along. Joe engineered, designed and will build it. I'm the general contractor of the project making sure that progress is happening. :) And official stainer. I'm good with a roller.
The beginning phase took quite a while to be completed. After two full days this weekend of Joe working, it didn't really look like much was done but the foundation was set.
Holes measured, footings dug, concrete poured.
Next up was removing the siding and attaching this beam to get the support frame up.
Yes, that is Joe presenting Barrett to his future kingdom (a la Lion King)
And here's where we are now. I missed a bit of the progression (like attaching the columns to the footers and what not but you get the idea). Now I need to catch up on staining the 439280 more boards so we can get more joists installed and start the fun part...the planks!
I'm not standing quite center here but you see the metal piece attached to the house on the right, just above the right bottom window. That is where the edge of the stairs will be and the edge of the deck. The left edge will be just to the left of the chimney bump out. It does not extend to that left window like the picture may seem.
Here's a better view of where the stairs will be. The last metal piece attached to the house is the edge of the steps so just to the left of that basement window. The top of the staircase will be against the house and the steps will descend out toward the yard. Kind of coming at you in this picture.
We're getting there!
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