When we moved into our house last summer, we redid the kitchen. We also had the contractor put in a door from the dining room out to the yard, envisioning a deck someday.
“Someday” finally began to arrive last Thursday. After much talking, hemming and hawing, price gathering, questions to friends and at Home Depot, we made the order for eDeck material. Everything was delivered safely…except for the actual eDeck. They had to special order it, and sent it to the wrong store, which then got lost, but which was PROMISED to arrive Friday. So, on Wednesday night, I spent hours looking at the instructions and trying to figure things out online. I had about 10 things I absolutely could not figure out how to do, being the construction idiot that I am.
Thursday morning, my friend and neighbor Joachim came over. In 20 minutes, he had solved my 10 things, found 10 more problems, and solved them too. He was the brains, and I did the work. After I set the piers, he helped me with the ledger board. Todd and Steve helped for a few hours with the beam and the joists, and by the end of the day we had this:
Of course, when I had to visit Home Depot for something I forgot that day, I also found out that the delivery of the eDeck was pushed back to Saturday. On Saturday, I went to Home Depot again for one more joist (my mistake). By 5 pm, still no delivery. I went back to Home Depot again, because they sent me the handrail kits, but not the needed posts (their mistake). After I asked about the delivery, it took them 45 minutes to track down where my decking was; instead of on a truck to my house, like all the paperwork I signed said, it was on the way to the Sherwood store where I ordered it. Sigh.
At 6 pm, they called and said it was at the store, the driver agreed to deliver it to my house. At 7:15 pm, I called back and asked why the 15 minute drive from Sherwood hadn’t been accomplished in over an hour. “Look, I saw your decking on the truck, I signed the papers, it’s on the way.” At 8:20 pm, the decking finally arrived. So, after not much work on Saturday, and a few hours of time on Sunday afternoon, I had this:
After Monday evening, I had this:
And after last night, I had this:
Tonight, we’re heading to my parents’ house on Bainbridge Island for a few days, so the railing, bench, and stairs will have to wait. But, we’ll be ready for a good barbecue soon…watch for the invitation! 🙂