YadaBlog

My last post was entitled The Light at the End of the Tunnel. I felt I could begin to see a time when I would have this deck finished. Not that I hate working on it. Quite the opposite. I get involved in what I am doing and literally lose track of time. It is like putting together one big puzzle or solving a giant sudoku. Building it is mentally and physically stimulating.

 Yesterday and today however, the tunnel expanded. You see, the deck I’m building is not rectangular. It is actually an irregular hexagon with right angles where it attaches to the house. To get an idea of what the side opposite the house looks like, imagine a rectangle with two corners on one side cut off and the sides connected by the hypotenuse of the the removed right angle. This is where the tunnel expanded. Up until now I was working with right angles. Now I am working with forty-five degree angles, miter cuts, as well as two levels (even though they are only one foot apart).

Yesterday, I fixed problems. The headers were attached to the two angled sections of the upper deck. That meant two 2×8s has to be fastened together then bolted to the posts. Sounds easy, but the header met the posts at a 45 degree angles. No problem. All I needed to do was to cut the boards long and draw the lines where I need to cut and have at it. Well, just before I started to cut, I noticed the bolts holding the header parallel to the house were in the way of the cut. “No biggie,” I thought, “I’ll just move them over a bit out of the way of the cut.” Just as I had this solution, I remembered I had burned up my drill.  So, I bought a new, heavy duty drill. Once the bolts were moved, I began cutting using a hand saw. It took forever. So, I went back to the store and bought a long enough blade for my reciprocating saw to cut through the lumber. I had at it, but before I got through half of the header, the battery of the saw had it. Mind you, there was a second post that I had to fix, also. All in all, I charged each of the four batteries twice to get the header up (even though it still needs a small cut on each end)  thus completing the frame of the upper deck. And I thought I would be able to put the joists up too.

Today, once the rain stopped, I spent a lot of time fitting a header into one of the angled sections of the lower deck. I began by installing the post for the this part of the deck. Then, starting with the easier square end, I put up the end joist that will also hold the stairs. Off of this, I installed another square piece, the ledger, and off the this, the other end joist (also square). I was making progress despite a rain delay, then I got to another angled section and everything slowed down. This board, the ledger for this section, had to be mitered and notched to go around the corner of the girder. It took some time but the board is up. Now, I only have two more boards that need mitering for this section, then the last section of the lower deck is square so that will be cake.