A DIY Memorial Day Weekend – Our New Deck

The Memorial Day Weekend was a great time to stop and remember those who've given the ultimate sacrifice in service of our country. It was also a good time to finally get that deck installed in our backyard.

Seeing as we have a walk-out basement with a door directly below where the upstairs doors lead to our existing raised deck, we decided (after a few years of trying, without much luck to grow grass in the area) to put a new deck in the backyard, as well. Luckily, both my wife and I had taken some time off on Friday, when the weather couldn't have been nicer. It was the perfect time to start our DIY project.

Well, actually, we started the process earlier in the week by removing what little

landscaping there was in front of our walk-out doors downstairs, underneath our current, raised deck. This involved much shoveling of decorative rock, and then raking the 12-foot by 12-foot area to get a level (well, sort of level, anyway) surface with which we could then lay down a fabric weed barrier.

Oh, and adding about a yard of river rock on top of that barrier. Once that 'little' project was completed, we started framing in the deck, using four of the deck joists we'd purchased a week earlier. Despite neither my wife or me having any real expertise in this area, we somehow got the joists cut (we needed to trim around 6 inches off each joist

to get them to fit in our space) and could then go about constructing the frame of the deck. After that, our next step meant we could now start hanging the remaining joists. When that step was completed-- with roughly 18 nails per joist and with 16 joists throughout the deck-- the task of attaching the decking planks to the deck joists commenced.

We're still in the process of completing that step. With 20 screws per plank and 24 planks total, that's 480 different screws that need be drilled into the deck. Which means there's a lot of bending over. And a lot of sore backs. Hopefully I'll get it completed within the next day or so. But it's usable now-- and it looks much better than the scraggly patches of grass that used to be there. Now all we need to do is have a few inaugural beverages to break it in!