All Decked Out

Yesterday was so brutally cold that we were only able to install the first board on the last railing installation. We called it quits after the first board.  But in our defense....the first board had a very difficult angle on each end.

 

We picked it up today with the second board and we completed the handrail in about two hours.

 

This finishes up the deck work until mid summer when we complete the long stairway on the backside of the deck.  Of course we were 4 screws short but we will pick up a box tomorrow.  Running out of screws has been an ongoing battle during this project. Do we buy a large box or a small box?  Word of advice...buy the big box.  You will use more screws than you think and nothing is worse than being 4 screws short.

 

It was satisfying to complete (or nearly complete) this huge project.  We learned a lot along the way and basically would not have done it differently.

What's next?  The flower beds need raking and tidying up.  Then of course we need to mow the lawn AGAIN!  But I would say our next big project is to reshingle the front of the house.  We need to do this so I can paint later in the summer.

The shingles are too far gone.  The are dry, cupped, cracked, and covered in 70+ years worth of paint. It is far easier to replace with new shingles than to try and fix and scrap old shingles when in the end all you have are old shingles that have been scraped.  Once the shingles are removed we can correct any problems underneath the shingles.  Fingers crossed that we find none but missing tar paper.

But in the meantime we will savor this small deck victory.