Build a deck.

It’s all about the support, take you time with the building the shoring, the decking is nothing

I’m giving away a new copy of Ortho’s Decks & Patios on my Rose City Reader blog. Click the link for details. It’s not a contest; there are no rules. Just cleaning out my book shelves. First person to leave a comment gets the book.

Due to poor weather, other commitments, and lack of ambition, I shall postpone this project until summer.

I now, however, own a book on designing and building decks… at which I have as of yet barely glanced. :-(

I have decided I would like to do this. Actually, I will be rebuilding and slightly extending an existing deck rather than building a completely new deck. I’d like to start during the holiday break in late December. I just ordered a book, Building a Deck: Build Like a Pro by Scott Schuttner from Amazon.com. The existing deck is starting to show some termite damage in addition to general wear.

A FRUSTRATING aspect of listing this goal at 43Things is deciding what to CALL the goal. A search for “deck” turns up numerous goals. I wish more 43Things people would search existing goals before quickly typing in, or in many cases, mis-typing in, their own lame version of an existing goal. After all, one of the appeals of this site is to SHARE the experience with others.

“Build a deck.” currently has the greatest number of participants among deck-related 43Things goals. Note that this is “Build a deck.” with a capital “B” and a period at the end. “build a deck” with no capital letter and no period is also listed as a goal, with one participant. “Rebuild my deck” was another option I considered, with two participants, but I was not keen on the adjective “my,” preferring “the” or “a.”

Perhaps I’m nit-picking. I mean, who cares, right? So what if the recommendation 43Things makes is, “complete this sentence: I want to….” Using that format, the correct way to phrase this goal would be, “build a deck.” I didn’t see that option when I searched, and I didn’t want to start yet another deck-related goal, particularly one where I would be the only participant.

Anyway, yeah… the book should arrive in a couple of weeks, and then I’ll have a month or so to figure out how to build a deck, pick out materials, and decide how to pay for it. Paying for it: now there’s the real challenge! ;-)

...my guy is. So my goal is to support, encourage, and stay the hell out of his way until he gets it done (which will hopefully be before it snows!). Oops, supportive….right!

I’ve lived here six years. I built a deck five years ago and added an outdoor hottub so I believe I have the skills, but I’m lazier than ever and have already put it on hold this summer.

I am wasting my yard but I have no money… sigh!

I started this ages ago, built the deck to the point where it’s almost complete but I can’t finish it. I need to finish out the railing and some exterior edge aesthetic stuff. But I discovered that I’m really not much into these types of home improvement projects. I have the skills (kind of) but it drags on forever and I certainly don’t have the level of workmanship and vision to pull the whole thing off. Whereas my brother (or Ivan) love the feeling they get when they’re done, I tend to see it more as a burden.

Now with that all said I love nothing more than working on my music gear or fixing smaller things around the house. The lesson for me is really to leave things like deck work and bigger house projects to professionals and work on projects that interest me.

strange shape

I wanted to build a deck for the longest time. I couldn’t figure out if i should do it my self or let some one else do it. I figured I should try first. And I did, but then I Failed and it was un even. I called people at Signature Contractorsand they helped me solve all my problems.