Keeping the wife happy

[mack]

After we finished the house, my wife was getting perturbed with the kids running in from the pool with sandy feet. So she asked me if I could build a deck. Nothing too big just enough for them to get to the pool. Don’t go overboard on this! I said sure honey, I’ll build my girls a deck!
https://youtu.be/LXYjfJ89Wlw

[Bergman16]

After we finished the house, my wife was getting perturbed with the kids running in from the pool with sandy feet. So she asked me if I could build a deck. Nothing too big just enough for them to get to the pool. Don’t go overboard on this! I said sure honey, I’ll build my girls a deck!
https://youtu.be/LXYjfJ89Wlw

I enjoyed that more than anything else I've seen on a screen this year! Unfolds like a great novel!

[3Phase]

Beauty!That is one heck of a deck!

[mack]

Patience

Scott I've had a bit of a set back with my shoulder. Tried to jump a weight class and may have torn some new muscles. Be patient, Colombo will have a new power plant. I'm soo pissed at this, been a few weeks now and it still hurts to lift my arm shoulder height. I knew I had to build a fence at my wife's new house, and I wanted to get this PP to you for a riding season but it just wasn't ready for the strength training I induced. So I'm a one armed coffee drinker. Good news is that when I'm drinking a coffee with my right arm, I can't smoke with my left. Be patient my friend, it hasn't been a good thing for me physically for the last few years. Shattered my right hand in fight to rescue my eldest daughter from a group of guys in a bar, then slashed the tendons in my right hand trying to catch a computer(long story) then tore my bicep muscle out of my left shoulder. I hate this age poop. I'm still 20 but my body won't listen!!!!

[Jerry]

What a deck! Nice job!

[dbbrian]

Wow Mack, that's a deck without going overboard?

Good thing you restrained yourself

Damn nice deck.

[XJOK2PLAY]

Mack,
Having built a few decks myself around above ground pools...
I bow to your superior carpentry skills!!

Incredibly impressive work right there.
Loved the video/soundtrack work, too! Awesome!

My only question- did momma see the lumber bill before or after she saw the cool deck??

Lucky kids! Will you adopt me??
Lol...
Bob

[3Phase]

My only question- did momma see the lumber bill before or after she saw the cool deck??

Did you miss the forest in his back yard?


Mack, I'm not worried about it. Columbo's engine is next up on the block when I finish the XJ. I ripped my shoulder too, tried to reach out and catch something I should have just let drop. I haven't been able to lift a coffee cup for a month.

[STEPPENWOLF]

I could use a nice deck. I think my wife was happiest when I was on the road.

[madmax-im]

My my thats quite a nice result...I'm curious as to wether or not that real is wood or composite materials?...seems to me that there an awful lot of wood maintenance to keep after...

[Wildkat]

Nothing too big just enough for them to get to the pool. Don’t go overboard on this!

Well done! lol

That is AMAZING!!
It started out pretty cool, then became awesome!

I'm kinda understanding why your shoulder isn't happy.

The background music was an interesting choice but a good one.

Beautiful job!

[mack]

Thanx

Thanx for the kind words. It took me three summers to complete it. In the winter I was restoring the xs’s so I was able to save some money to put toward the next phase of the deck. The largest expense was the fastners not the wood. I used all “simpson strong tie” at posts and beams and joist hangers, stirups etc.. The built up beams were done in the usual fashion with 3 ½ inch spiral zinc dipped nails. The pressure treatment had changed a couple years prior to my starting so the required screws had to be ceramic. I don’t know how many pounds of each I went through but several thousand wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration. I was buying lag bolts and screws by the carton. Concerning the deck boards. I wanted to do it in composite but it was 3 times more expensive than pressure treated for the surface, the hidden fastener system was just way out of this world. So I handpicked the deck boards discarding anything that wasn’t vertical end grain to avoid cupping. Thinking into the future I knew that I would resurface it with composite someday, so I covered all the load bearing members with tar paper to ensure that they will be pristine ten years down the road. In the mean time I go out every spring with a wagner power painter filled with “Thompsons water Seal” and spray it down. Takes a couple hours once a year and it still looks like the day I put the deck down. It has turned grey of course but the deck itself is great. DBBrian. In my mind it’s a basic deck, I could have made it fancy but optioned for function over aesthetics. I have three daughters and they all have their friends over so I needed three separate gathering area’s (one being the pool itself) and a dance floor area. With girls of different ages there is a whole”my friends can’t associate with your friends” thing that happens. So I wired the deck for power as well as sound and light so the older kids could swim to music after dark, while the littler ones roasted marsh mellows and hot dogs at the camp fire after swimming. I’ve had grad parties here, my high school reunion and every summer the neighborhood BBQ is held here. The most people I’ve had at one time was about 230. It’s nice when a group of kids come over just to swim, not any of mine but just kids from down the road. The parents bring them on hot days and sit under the gazebos in the shade and watch their own kids while I’m out riding or cutting the grass. We are way out in the country so my place became the closest thing to party central for 15 miles in any direction. I just leave the doors unlocked and pop and juice is stocked in a fridge in the garage. Everyone refers to it as "MAX Villa", LOL.

[DeanR]

Nice job Mack !!

[XJOK2PLAY]

Did you miss the forest in his back yard?

Sorry Scott, couldn't see it for the trees.

[3Phase]

Sorry Scott, couldn't see it for the trees.

Okay, back to work now.