Introducing... The Hoverdeck!
Mood:  d'oh
Incidentally, we may have recovered pretty quickly from the tempest, but my father in law up in the Hood Canal area expects to be without power until at least Wednesday!

Out here on the island, the storm blew the rain away at least temporarily, so I got to spend some time outside in the sun. That meant I could spend some time on the deck project.

Rather than tear the whole thing out and start over, I decided to save some money by removing the eyesore built-in benches and planters which were made the place look tres 1975 (which I suppose it is, but still...) and replace any bad planks and the rotten front step. I decided to start with the step, because it seemed like the easiest part of the task. Pull off the bad one and nail down a new one. Easy peasy.

Ever industrious (and looking for a reason to bust out the power tools) I set to with a will. I sliced up a new board for the step and turned to address the old one. It was so rotten I didn't even need the prybar, it just fell apart around the nailheads (sheesh!). It was only then that I realized that the stringers were rotten too. No problem, I can replace those too. I'm a handy guy, no problem, right? The guy that owned the house before us was no carpenter, that's for certain.

I pried the stringers off and beheld a sight no homeowner wants to see. After a momen'ts shock, I realized that I was looking at a 4x4 post that was supposed to be holding up that section of the porch, but was rotted away a few inches from the ground. By pulling away the skirting and employing my handy flashlight I discovered that our deck was basically levitating! The dork hadn't placed any of the posts in sandy holes, up on concrete pilings, pre-formed blocks or even bricks! The daggum thing had been built just sitting on the dirt!!! Over half the pilings were rotted away and just hanging there like little 4X4 wooden anchors!

Perhaps I shouldn't say the man was a complete loss. The thing feels solid when you walk on it, even now. It didn't sag, squeak or do any of the things that might have tipped me off that it was basically unsupported! Like I said, the front deck is - for all intents and purposes - a hovercraft!

Removing the flowerboxes and bench and hauling away that debris took the rest of the daylight I had left. So at the moment I have a cinderblock for a front step and yellow police tape cordoning off the most dangerous part of the porch. Next weekend we get to spend a romantic weekend building a new deck.

Oh joy!

At least the new one won't be painted battleship grey. We're going to stain it. And it will be seated firmly on preformed concrete bases, in accordance with county building code!

Sigh.
Scottie