Back from our Disney Vacation

We're back from a Labor Day week Disney World vacation.  The trip was great and Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna stayed away from the Orlando area.  It only rained two of the nine days we were there and then for only a short period of time.  The parks were not crowded as most kids were back in school and most rides had no wait times.  All in all, it was a great trip to cap off the summer.

Gone Fishin

Well, the deck project has been put on hold.  I'm taking the next two weeks off for some time away from the project.  Check back on September 10th when we get back to work.

Now I know where my mother gets it from. . .

My mom dropped off a letter written by my great-grandmother to my grandmother Dorothy (my mom's mom).  Apparently Dorothy, at age 17, had gone to the beach with a friend and received the following instruction:

Phila  July 4, 1934

Dear Dorothy,

Just a line to let you know that we arrived safely home at 8 o'clock.  we did not rush, but there were more traffic and you could not make very good time.  I hope that you and Merlyn will enjoy yourselves but don't stay in the water too long or go out far, and keep away from the pilings & try and watch & don't loose anything and take care that you lock the door & not loose the key & don't go in the water with any of your rings on or your watch & be a good girl.  Help Hannah and Robert with the work. and clean up your own dishes & dust-up the floors a bit when you see the need it.  and if every thing is alright & everybody well, we will do down for you on Sunday morning.  So good night & best regards to all.

Your loving Mother

This explains a lot. . .      :-)

The bricks have landed. . .

My son was not feeling well today and spent the better part of the day in bed.  My dad came by around 9 AM and was a great help.  Thanks Dad!

The morning started off by leveling the first course of bricks.  I had purchased two pieces of 1/2" black pipe last night to screed the sand and make everything level. After placing the first course of retaining wall, I filled in with crushed stone.

The second course of the retaining wall went in quickly.  I used some construction adhesive to bond the two layers of the wall together.  Once the middle was filled in with more crushed stone to within two inches of the top, I filled in with a course sand first and tamped it down.
After tamping the course sand, I then used leveling sand to create a sturdy base for the brick pavers.  I also used construction adhesive to mate the bricks to the paving wall.  When all the bricks were in place, I used polymeric sand to fill the gaps between the bricks.  I found that some sand was escaping along the back and left edge, so I used a small bead of adhesive to fill the edges.  This worked well and was not noticeable.  
The brick landing took the better part of the morning.  In the afternoon, it was back to SketchUp to tweak the stair stringer details now that I had the exact landing to deck height.  

Once the details were set, we set up in the garage and started cutting the stringers.  Had to go to Lowe's to get a 2x12 when I found that one of the lumberyard stringers was cracked beyond use.  I had to cut my own stringers because the store bought stringers didn't have enough rise to reach the deck from the ground.  A second advantage was that my stringers are attached under the deck instead of hanging a second piece of wood under the joist to catch the stringer.  It looks a whole lot better in my opinion.
We decided to call it quits once the stringers were in place.  I'm behind schedule from where I wanted to be at this time, but I'm meeting another one of my goals - enjoying the summer.   Despite being behind, I'm feeling good about the progress and don't want to rush the finish details.

The value of living near home. . .

One of the great things about being close to family is the ability to get together for things that we would never make a 5 hour drive for.  Last night we got together for dinner with my wife's side of the family for a dual birthday party (my son and my sister-in-law).  The weather, food, and time together was all great.

In the category of "it's taking longer than it should. . . "

At the bottom of the steps, I am creating a brick landing for folks to step off onto.  As I mentioned before, the ground is sloped where the steps hit the ground. A level pad would ensure that folks wouldn't lose their balance at the bottom of the steps.  

This past Saturday I purchased the bricks for the pad - (48) 4" x 8" bricks which would form a 32"x48" landing.  As I started last night, I realized just how much the ground sloped: about 12" from front left corner to right rear.  Clearly I was not going to be able to build up dirt around the pad as I had first intended.  Back to Lowes where I purchased (11) 4"x8"x12" wall blocks. My plan is to build a wall on the rear and right side, fill in the middle with rock then sand, then place the brick pavers on top.

Our soil is dense clay and we spent the better part of the night excavating the hole. The soil was so hard we had to use a 5' iron breaker bar to break up the soil.  After we had the hole to the right depth, we started filling the footers for the wall with crushed rock we got from a neighbor.  We then created our sand bed which I started to level. I test fit three bricks but found them slightly out of level, so I'll get some pipe on my way home tomorrow to screed the sand.  

Taken from the deck

Hardware store to the rescue

It's been a slow couple of days with respect to deck building.  Actually, there has been no deck building going on in the last couple of days.  Sunday we went to church and then spent the afternoon with my folks.

I went to the hardware store today to return a couple of unused items and to work out the exchange of the Azek trim.  I had received 10" material but realized that 12" material was needed to cover the edges of the TimberTech planks.  I'm covering the ends of the boards as they are grooved to accept the hidden fasteners.  

While there, I got two packages of extra Radiance Rail fasteners that I needed (see previous post). The good news was that they had the package in stock even if each package of four cost $18.  The person I was working with said that the TimberTech material has gone up in price since I purchased it, and is going to go up another 7% due to high demand and cost of materials.

I hope to start working on the brick pad for the steps tomorrow night.  The dog will be happy about this as she found the 40" leap a bit to high to her liking (after she jumped).