So, it seems that I have some very, very patient friends.  Forget for a moment that deck building activities are now moving into the 5th month, and they still keep coming back to help me, but the real kicker is now the manner in which I decided to install the decking.  Way back before there was even a hole in the ground, Rob was asking about how I wanted to install the decking, probably because he knew what I now realize; doing anything remotely different from just laying the boards across the joists takes more time.  A LOT MORE TIME.  For instance, Rob (foolishly) mentioned that doing a “picture frame” board around the outside of the deck looks really nice and hides all of the board ends from the outside.  Yep, it sure does.  It also means that we have to install a BUNCH more (about 30 more pieces) blocking to make sure we have something to screw it down to.  Ok, so we got that done.  Then I also decided (because I’m a jerk) that diagonal decking looks so cool, we were going to do that too.  Ya, great.  So, that meant we had to install a LOT more blocking (maybe another 30 pieces?) so we had something to screw the ends of the deck boards down to.

So, while I wish the deck was done, now I have myself to blame that it’s taking way longer than I had originally planned.  On the upside however, the decking is looking fantastic, which is just awesome.

So there you go, a little update for you folks, and a thank you to good friends who are willing to put up with me….

The Plan
The Hole
The Ledger
The Footings
The Post Post
The Joists
The Railing Posts and Bracing