Before and After: The Deck

Why hello there blog! Miss me much?

The last month has been a whirlwind of activities, travel, and good stuff around the house. It's also been party to more than a couple crying jags, but I'm not here to talk about those. At least, not right now. What I am here to talk about is my spiffy new deck!

The condo association is replacing all of the main floor decks over 4 summers. There are 16 units here, so we did 7 decks last summer that were structurally unsound and need to be replaced ASAP. That left us with 9 decks and a plan to replace 3 a summer through 2013. Original plan was to basically draw straws to determine whose deck would be replaced first, but it was suggested and voted on at the annual Owner's Meeting in May that the contractor should re-inspect the remaining 9 and we'd do the 3 worst this year. Also voted on at the meeting? Me onto the board of directors. Interestingly enough, the 3 decks that wound up being replaced this year were mine, the one other member of the board who didn't have a replacement yet, and the outgoing member whose board seat I took! I swear there were no shenanigans involved!

Originally my deck was only 5' wide - basically just wide enough to fit the grill across one end of it and to have a tiny table with two chairs pushed up against the wall.

Before pictures:

Left: Photo of the rear of my townhouse from the fall I moved in. Showing not only the original deck, but also the original windows (since replaced), the original sliders (ditto), bushes that are no longer there (chopped down by me), trees that are no longer there (chopped down by the condo association), and a collapsing retaining wall that has since been dug out and replaced (thanks again, condo assoc!)
Right: The original deck was pretty much just wide enough for the hammock chair.

 I came home from work on a Monday and had big huge X's of caution tape across the two sliders in the living room - and nothing outside them! It was a great view, sadly I forgot to take a picture. The next day the deck joists were up and temporarily attached to some plank posts so the contractors could pour footings in the right places. The cats were itching to go out and inspect after 2 days of watching people outside their windows all day. Perhaps trying to recreate the days he spent walking along the rafters at my parents' old cabin (left pic), Boo bravely managed to work his way out to the far corner and plop down (center pic). Deck joists are narrower than log cabin rafters though, and he's a little bit wider, so once he got out there, he wasn't too keen on coming back (right pic)! It took about 15 minutes of me coaxing with the kitty treats and him giving me "but I can't balance on this!" looks to get him back inside.

 Gracie, on the other hand, being a normal cat-sized cat, flitted right out and across the joists and back again. She approves of the deck construction. Boo was not amused.

 New deck is now 8' wide, which adds about 60 sq ft of space to my outside area. It's practically a dance floor out there now! The table and chairs look way too small now, though, and I finally have the space to seat more than a couple of people, soooo.....

 ...I hit up Lowes' Labor Day sale for some half price deck furniture! A table and 4 new chairs for $70, which I figured was a steal. I still haven't moved the grill back onto the deck yet, but I spent a good portion of Monday afternoon sitting in the sun, reading, and enjoying the space. Planning an official "Christen the Deck" party in a couple of weekends!