Scary Cabin

With the front deck framing mostly complete, we turned our attention on the side deck. First step was to tear down the old. It was just the two of us working on this but we managed to fill up the trailer with more than half of the deck and haul it off to the dump. We then ripped down the remaining bits and hauled that off too.

We then started rebuilding. The first step was to install the ledger board. With the ledger board in place, we poured new pier blocks on top of the existing footings. Once those set up, we cut and installed the posts. At this point we realized that we didn’t have the brackets to attach the beams to the posts. We also got a good look at the existing posts that hold up the porch overhang. The old deck had joists nailed to the side of these posts and that collected moisture/debris causing some rot in the posts. We made an executive decision to replace the posts now while we had easy access to them. Without posts or brackets, we were done until we picked up more supplies.

Apparently the brackets we’re using to attach beams to posts are not commonly uses (don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing). We ordered what we needed from Home Depot, but unlike our previous order, they were going to arrive too late so we started searching and finally found enough to handle the next part of the build.

We wanted to spend a bit more than a 2 day weekend so took a couple of days off to make it a 4 day weekend. We also got help form Larry and Barbara. First order of business was to replace the overhang posts.

We did learn that a falling 4×4 post has enough force to shear the iron water line for the out side faucet. That added a bit of excitement.

With the posts replaced and looking nice and solid, we moved on to the beams. A couple of cuts and a bunch of nails and we had beams.

The rest of the time was spent cutting and fitting joists with a small break in between to cut and install posts for the lower deck.