The big farmette renovation of 2017 has begun! The deck on the east side of the house was starting to show its age...actually we and our deck furniture were starting fall through the rotten wood in places, so we decided early this spring to get some quotes in from local contractors.
When the estimates made us nearly faint, my sister suggested we talk to my niece Melissa's husband Mike, who's been a residential contractor for years.
Mike's a terrific guy and a meticulous builder, so when we approached him, he agreed right away. After much humming and hawing and measuring and re-working - at one point we had a gigantic pointy thing jutting out towards the garage - we came up with a kind-of trapezoidal configuration.
We figured, since we were ripping out the old one, might as well make it a real project and add few (dozen) square feet of real estate. - so we can have a nice-sized table and chairs for those summer family gatherings.
Yesterday was day one of the project, and the family troops came through like ninety! Both sisters, my niece Rachel, her boyfriend Jesse (both big, strong 21-year-olds) and, of course, Mike, Rob and I.
Tear-down occurred in no time flat. I swear, we started at about 9 a.m. and were done taking most of it apart by 10 a.m. Just ask my back muscles today...
Here's the crew: Mike smiling in the back, and from the left, Jesse, Rachel, Rob and Sandy.
When Mike did his assessment before starting reconstruction, it was a scene straight out of one of those reno shows. We could see that the wall behind the deck was in pretty bad shape. The base board at foundation level was rotten, and needed replacing before anything could happen with the deck. We were intending to replace the crappy exterior pressboard that covered the side of the house anyway, but found out that there were big holes in the shiplap under it so new plywood had to be attached - hence an extra trip to the Home Hardware.
We then found out that the vent running into the laundry room had never been attached...meaning all the hot air from the furnace in winter and cool air from the conditioner was just going into the atmosphere! Nice.
So, off to the Home Hardware for more supplies. Then, there were the fiddly bits with water taps and electrical outlets.
While we got a bit damp throughout the day, by late afternoon, Mother Nature had had enough. The skies opened up and the rain came down in a marauding maelstrom. That, however did not deter my younger sister from her barbecue. Here she is, preparing for the big family dinner after a hard day at the job site.
While the job is still far from done (see below with a pic of older sister Barb), the meal was delish, the company fabulous, and everyone went home happy. Next weekend, there are sure to be more construction adventures from the farmette.
