It's a Party (Deck)!

We had the best, most fun weekend with three of my cousins in town to visit us and Kentucky for the first time, and we even got to use the deck!  Ok, so the railing isn't up yet, and the stairs are just temporary, but hoping that none of our friends would fall off the sides we inaugurated the new deck with a dinner party in the cousins' honor.  Here's how last week's progress went:  

Once the structure was built, we installed the posts for the future railing into the sides of the deck frame using enormous 1/2" galvanized bolts to hold them in place.  Then finally, the most exciting part-- we could start laying the decking!! 

Using a framing nail gun we borrowed from an even tool-crazier friend sped up the process of nailing in the decking boards by about a thousand percent, and it made it pretty fun, too!  Once some of the first boards were down we could begin walking on the surface of the deck more easily, too.  Most of the boards were pretty straight, but we had to be careful to keep them evenly spaced.  Using a nail as a spacer and a crowbar to manipulate the decking boards, we managed to maneuver them into place long enough to shoot 'em with the gun.  

We didn't worry about the extra length hanging off both sides of the deck, since we knew we would come back later with a circle saw and trim off the edges for a clean finish.

And then the day of the cousins' arrival: party ready in a hurry!

We are SO close!! I can't wait to show you the next round of photos!

xo

Liza