So what are we up to now at the Looker household.
You may well ask!
This time we needed help as this project was definitely out of our capabilities.
We moved from the indoors to the outdoors.
Our deck area we thought we could renovate, however, after having 3 contractors look at it, we already knew there were some issues. We didn’t realize that we had a safety problem.
• The deck boards were pretty much beyond repair. We had painted them 3 times to try and make them look presentable, but to no avail, the paint peeled away. The house was built in the 80’s and the boards were the original boards.
• Both sets of stairs were not ‘to code,’ indeed 1 set although attached to the top of the deck, were basically floating at the bottom.
• The deck was not attached to the house properly so was unsafe! An accident waiting to happen.
• And more……
This was going to be expensive.
The whole structure had to be taken down.

Bare boards with Gazebo and mosquito nets.

Our initial plan had to be revised. This gave us an opportunity to really think about what we wanted.

The back of the house gets really hot during the day. Shade comes from a huge tree that overhands the deck, but its roots are creeping under the house and possibly may cause foundation issues. Although, the tree as beautiful -a Water Oak, it, throws down acorns that contains seeds all over the old deck that creates such a mess, so down it has to come.

Our neighbor also is transforming their garden and is taking down 2 old pine trees near ours, so we need to find shade from somewhere.
What were the options?
• A covered deck – too expensive
• A Gazebo with roof? Still expensive
• A Pergola?

The more we thought about the design, the more we kept changing our minds. My husband and I had put up a gazebo on the deck a couple of years ago 12’ x 10’ with a tarpaulin top, when the furniture was put in it seemed crowded, we needed more space to accommodate outdoor furniture and dining table and chairs too, so we decided to extend the deck by 8ft.
Next, we wanted to look at easy maintenance, no more painting deck board and rails, that meant looking at a composite material for the deck base, wooden rails with protective sleeves and wrought iron spindles.
We chose Home Depot Veranda Composite colour, initially we were going for dark grey, but just having the sidings replaced and choosing a taupe paint colour – the grey didn’t work therefore, we chose Brazilian Walnut, a warm rich brown.
One set of stairs but double the width leading onto a concrete area that could provide extra seating and our grill, plus possibly a hot/cold tub.

Several designs later we came up with a template. Of course as we expected we had easily doubled the price of our deck extension with a Pergola.

And so the project began.

Deck demolished, the struts holding up the deck were rotten and required completely replacing. It was more apparent that whoever built the original deck did not adhere to any regulations at all. Like I said an accident waiting to happen.

Progress so far Frame

No turning back now.

Cant wait to see our new deck .

Tune in again for part 2 to see how it all turned out.

The Next Outdoor Project. Part 1.