There were times we wondered if this day would ever come...but it did and the deck redo is done.
The weather is too cold to touch up the cream colored stain so that little chore will have to wait until next year as will any furniture choices or placement. Winter came a little early this year and when most people are putting away their furniture it would be foolish to stage the deck and then take it all inside.
Let's start with a couple of before photos. These photos show the condition of the deck when B and G purchased the house.
Notice the set of steps on this end of the deck. We eliminated those steps and installed a 6 foot wide set in the middle of the front of the deck. Also notice the only section of railing that was installed on the deck. B and I removed it by just pushing on it.
In this photo notice the undersized rim joist. Besides being undersized it was in very poor condition. The deck also did not have any joist hangers installed and the only attachment was toe nailed twist nails. G installed joist hangers wherever possible.
This photo shows how high the deck appeared because of the undersized rim joist. By installing a wider rim joist the deck now is visually lower to the ground. This is also the side we installed the 6 foot wide steps.
And now the new and improved deck.
Here is an close up of the 6 foot wide steps. These steps will also act as additional seating. Next year B's plan calls for a stamped concrete landing at the bottom of these stairs with a walkway going to the garage entry door.
We used wood button plugs to cover up the screws that were used to hold the risers in place. FYI the wood button plugs line up nicely. I have no idea why in this photo they look all askew.
A close up of the hand rail cap.
We used those same wood button plugs to cover up the screws used to attach the 2 X 12 rim joist to the old 2 X 6 rim joist. Carriage bolts were used to attach the deck posts. Once they were painted they mimicked the wood button plugs. I wanted to continue and use the button plugs to cover the screw holes on the spindles but G thought it would make the deck look like it was riveted together. I say "pshaw!" but I was over ruled.
B and G did a great job picking out both of the deck stain colors. Both the cream and the redwood color were perfect choices and contrast nicely without being gaudy. The cream color is an exact match to the body color of their house. We thought it was important for the deck to look like an extension of the house and not an add on.
Finally this last photo shows how we notched the post to accommodate the 2 X 4 used for the hand rail. The photo also shows some of the touch up that needs to be done in the spring.
All in all we are very pleased with how the deck turned out.
Installation was pretty straight forward. We used long wood screws to attach the base board to the wall. Because of the configuration, we were able to hide the screws behind the grill. The grill was then attached to the base board with four 1 and 1/4 inch wood screws. 
We counter sunk the wood screws so that we could hide the screws behind wood caps. We glued the caps in placed when we used these same wood caps on B & G's deck. In our application, we need the option to remove the caps to gain access to the screws if we ever need to remove the grill. I don't believe the caps will come out because I needed to use a hammer to install them.
The wood outlet cover required a little modification. When I removed it from the package I found out that the back was reinforced with a steel plate. 
I used a sharp knife to help release the glue (rubber cement) that held the metal plate to the wood cover. R used a pneumatic grinder with a cut off wheel meant for cutting metal, to cut off the excess metal plate. While R was grinding I used the chop saw to trim the wood cover to the correct size.
Here is the wood outlet cover installed. I see I have some sanding and patching to do around the electrical outlet. 
This is the view as you come into the foyer from the vestibule entrance.
The wood grill looks 100% better than the ugly bent metal cold air return. I still need to fill some holes with wood putty. The base board just around the corner is missing a chunk the size of a half dollar which I will probably fill with epoxy.
Here is a side by side comparison. I vote for the wood cold air return. The metal grill has been relegated to the scrap metal pile.
