More Maintenance
Today was my first day of vacation. Hooray!
And you can see what I was doing on my first day of vacation. Installing replacement boards in my parent's deck. And who would believe that we'd have temps in the low 80s this early in March?!
Let me tell you, I have a lot of concerns about construction workers. Are they nuts?! They do this stuff in the stifling heat of summer--and not for just a few hours. They do it all day long. Yikes. I was tired of the task within the first 30 minutes. But unfortunately it took a little over 3 hours. In case you're curious, the last 2 plus hours weren't so fun.
These boards really needed replacing. About one in four screws didn't even come out. I had to pry the board out due to the screws breaking off while I was trying to unscrew them. The damn things were so rusted that they'd just break apart. Then once the board was off, I'd have to go back with a pair of vice-grips and unscrew the bottom fraction of the screw.
See that nice hole on the left? I think a deck looks better having viewing holes like that and that they should be left like that. Lets more light through so you can grow plants below. Dad didn't buy that argument though. Anyway...
Have I ever mentioned that I really have no interest in construction work? Deconstruction might be a little fun but only if the place didn't have to be neat and tidy afterwards. Breaking things is fun! None of that kinda fun on this project though. Dad kept a close eye on my progress. :-(
These are the screws from the first board that we replaced. Not too many winners here. As it turned out, we couldn't reuse a single screw that we took out. Every single one was severely rusted.
At least I got to go kayaking for a few hours after I finished up on the deck. Even though it was hot and sunny, on the lake the breeze was blowing at a healthy clip so it felt quite comfortable. In fact, instead of my hat getting sweatier, while kayaking it dried out.
As you can see below, my hat was quite sweaty at the end of the Monday part of the deck project. There's a little more to do tomorrow. After we replaced the boards today, Dad noticed one more that needed replacing. I'm hoping the count doesn't increase from there.
This was out staging area. Dad would hold the board while I cut it to size then it was just a matter of taking out the screws on the old nasty board and then putting in the newly cut pretty board into place.
Have I ever mentioned my deep love of bending over, in hot weather, and repetitively unscrewing and then screwing *blush* boards into other boards? Well, there's a reason I haven't mentioned it. I don't love it!
But at least it's another task that's (mostly) finished. Maybe tomorrow I'll get out on the water early in the morning for some paddling. The pictures are a lot prettier then.
And you can see what I was doing on my first day of vacation. Installing replacement boards in my parent's deck. And who would believe that we'd have temps in the low 80s this early in March?!Let me tell you, I have a lot of concerns about construction workers. Are they nuts?! They do this stuff in the stifling heat of summer--and not for just a few hours. They do it all day long. Yikes. I was tired of the task within the first 30 minutes. But unfortunately it took a little over 3 hours. In case you're curious, the last 2 plus hours weren't so fun.
These boards really needed replacing. About one in four screws didn't even come out. I had to pry the board out due to the screws breaking off while I was trying to unscrew them. The damn things were so rusted that they'd just break apart. Then once the board was off, I'd have to go back with a pair of vice-grips and unscrew the bottom fraction of the screw.See that nice hole on the left? I think a deck looks better having viewing holes like that and that they should be left like that. Lets more light through so you can grow plants below. Dad didn't buy that argument though. Anyway...
Have I ever mentioned that I really have no interest in construction work? Deconstruction might be a little fun but only if the place didn't have to be neat and tidy afterwards. Breaking things is fun! None of that kinda fun on this project though. Dad kept a close eye on my progress. :-(
These are the screws from the first board that we replaced. Not too many winners here. As it turned out, we couldn't reuse a single screw that we took out. Every single one was severely rusted.At least I got to go kayaking for a few hours after I finished up on the deck. Even though it was hot and sunny, on the lake the breeze was blowing at a healthy clip so it felt quite comfortable. In fact, instead of my hat getting sweatier, while kayaking it dried out.
As you can see below, my hat was quite sweaty at the end of the Monday part of the deck project. There's a little more to do tomorrow. After we replaced the boards today, Dad noticed one more that needed replacing. I'm hoping the count doesn't increase from there.This was out staging area. Dad would hold the board while I cut it to size then it was just a matter of taking out the screws on the old nasty board and then putting in the newly cut pretty board into place.
Have I ever mentioned my deep love of bending over, in hot weather, and repetitively unscrewing and then screwing *blush* boards into other boards? Well, there's a reason I haven't mentioned it. I don't love it!But at least it's another task that's (mostly) finished. Maybe tomorrow I'll get out on the water early in the morning for some paddling. The pictures are a lot prettier then.
Comments