The
beauty of construction is you see it come into being right in front of your eyes
where nothing existed before! My latest large project was building a deck
on the East side of our home. I have documented this project in the Summer
of 2001. This is the fourth deck I build. Two decks are on this
house, one on our previous house, and one at a friend's house. First I
made the complete design and got a permit to construct the deck. The
picture shows the very start, I removed some siding, then I attached a ledger
with aluminum flashing to make sure no rain goes into the basement. Of the
two windows on the right, the left one will be removed and replaced by a door
(which opens outward over the deck.) The humming bird feeder was moved and
the steps for the deck were placed on the right side. Also, the three
concrete footings are visible (these are 12" except the center one is
14".)
My
older son (Fawzi Jr.) helped me to get the support beam and three columns plus
one joist in order to hold the pieces in place. We also used braces to
keep the structure from falling down in case of strong winds. From this
point on, the deck was completed mostly by myself. Sometimes my parrots
would give me moral support, and my younger son Chris helped me when I needed a
helping hand.
Putting
the decking was doing a repetitive job, over and over again, one board at a
time. Here, Tata, the Umbrella Cockatoo is giving me moral support as I
lay the decking at a 45 degree angle. Behind me is the garden (not planted
that summer) and two nestboxes and a mealworm feeder.
Well,
near the end of the summer, the deck passed inspection. The railing is
special, it is tilted at 15 degrees so the rain would roll off it. The
door is in place, but the top was not completed at that time (it is all done
now.) The size of this deck is 12 x 16 ft.
