Deck: It starts

Earlier this summer, the beginning of June to be precise, we bought a pergola at Costco. K had been eyeing one and, par for the course, she envisioned our house needed a back porch upgrade from the dilapidated old sun sail the previous owners had left. Last year, maybe in anticipation or some sort of foresight, we ripped out the warped and falling over 4x4 posts they had plopped in the ground to hold up that sail.

Basically, it was time for an upgrade.

Of course, also par for the course for us, what started as, "Let's buy this pergola because it's on sale," escalated quickly. Our deck was too small, by all of six inches or so. That meant we needed to build a bigger deck. Also, it's never as easy or as simple as that. With the wave pattern of Trex from a deck that was built without enough support, we knew we had another project on our hands.

Step 1: Rip up 80% of the old deck in our attempt to level all of the joists. 

So we did, back in June. We decided to split the deck into three sections, which I'd cut and run two additional joists lengthwise to give the structure more support. Using a square and circ saw, I first attached the deck with now scrap Trex before zipping each inside joist in three.

Then we had more pressing things to do, like fix our van and get ready for our monthlong trip to Alaska. The deck project would have to wait. Until today, when we got back to it properly. It feels good to be making progress on it.

After finishing the maths and a trip to Home Depot to get supplies, including a bunch of 16-foot 2x10s that still hung out the back door of our van, we're rolling again. What we first needed to know were the exact dimensions of the pergola in order to place the 10" concrete forms we'll be pouring on which to mount it. It was kind of cool, I'm not gonna lie, to at last get a glimpse of what this thing will look like. We didn't fully assemble it, mainly because it's 14-feet long by 9-feet wide by 8-something-feet tall. We'll need a couple extra helpers to actually build and place the thing.

Still, we took a lengthwise and crosswise section and determined where we want to put it, and that was pretty cool. It tucks up just underneath the overhang of our bedroom above. We'll pick up the angle the architect designed in the additional design of the deck.

Then we got to work digging out underneath the double 2x10s in order to place additional concrete piers. That involved digging a hole big enough to slide the pier underneath before snugging it up tight against the framing with a ratchet strap while filling dirt in underneath.

With that done, I get to start cutting more 2x10s and putting the original deck back together before tackling the addition. One step at a time…