Hit the Deck

     December yoyo’s right along.  The weather yoyo’s anyway.  A week ago, it hadn’t been above freezing for four days.  My walk-in refrigerator, the multi-tasking garage, turned into the walk-in freezer.  Even the home brew froze, not hard enough to break the bottle, but froze right enough. 

     The forty year old Coleman ice chest, full of carrots and daikon (oriental radish, “oriental” is probably politically incorrect, my apologies) had to come into the house proper every night.  A plastic jug of water in the cooler, if there’s room, keeps things from freezing, but things will still freeze after a couple of days in the garage when it’s down around zero.

    This Friday, it topped out at 60.  I missed the opportunity to clean and defrost the freezer.  Put the freezer stuff in the pickup in the garage.  Take your time with the defrosting.  Nothing would thaw out.  Last week that was.

     This week the garage has shifted from freezer to refrigerator again.  It’s nice enough to work outside, so time to hit the deck again. 

      I have two problems with building the deck.  Number one, I don’t know what I am doing.  Number two, it’s severely expensive. 

     Number one has been partially solved.  Some of the problems now, what to do with the 4 X 6 posts supporting the “veranda”.  The Goodwife says the aluminum wrap I usually use looks too cheap.  Plus, the posts are pressure treated which means they contain a lot of copper which reacts with and corrodes the aluminum.  You can buy column wraps made of metal (very expensive) or composite material for $150 and up per post.  There are ten posts.  I’ve ordered steel wraps which will be bent for me.  Cost, about $40 per post.

     The posts and post supports are all done.  Posts sit on post supports anchored to concrete. 

      Stairs.  I’ve never cut stair stringers.  I spent a lot of time on the internet trying to figure out how to lay out the stringers.  I think I have that down.  (Dangerous thoughts, those)

     Yesterday, I planned on getting the deck beams, 2 X 8’s doubled, in place.  I set out tools including saw.

    Then I realized I needed to get rid of some bushes that would be under the deck.  That took a couple of hours.  When I set a test 2 X 8 in place, I discovered I had not aligned the post supports very well.  The supports are somewhat adjustable, but I had to remove the posts to do the adjusting.  Bottom line, I didn’t get very much done, getting only two beams in place.

     Future problem, the bird feeder and the satellite dish have to be relocated, as the post they now cling to grows up through the middle of the deck.  The bird feeder is no problem, but the dish is.  After I get the dish remounted, probably on the nearby post, it has to be aimed precisely to get the satellite signal.  It’s a two-person job.  The Goodwife will be hollering numbers through the window, numbers she sees on the tv, as I make minute adjustments left and right, up and down to the dish.  I can’t do that until I get the post wrapped.  Oh well.  We shall overcome.

     Meanwhile it was a nice day—on the south side of the house, and I was outside again.  Even at sixty degrees, it wasn’t too nice on the north side.