Renovation // Transformation

Progress on the deck has been slow now that I'm back to work, but there's progress to report.

The way it's designed, there's a lot of math involved and things have to line up just right, so it's taking more time that a typical deck might. The hardness of the cumaru has also been a challenge if only because — since it machines almost like metal — you want/expect everything to be super-precise.

And it's been brutally hot…

But here are some progress pictures with the wood cut to length and set up for staining. It's beginning to look a lot more like a deck.

Here, you can clearly see the Vycor deck protector we're using.

Dry-fitting everything before staining

After the first coat of oil, the richness and variety of colors/textures of the wood really showed through.

Letting the oil cure for a day or so

 

Casie's father is here this weekend to visit the new baby… and to help with the deck. One of the things that has been the most vexing in the build was to get the level of the deck even with the level of the pool. Fortunately, he's an engineer.

He figured that the water in the pool was the most consistently level part of the yard and found a way to use that to our advantage — using a water level. By attaching a hose to a clear tube, we could view the level of the water over a distance by using hydrostatic pressure… the level of water in the tube equals the level of water in the tube. We knew we wated the top of the deck 5in from the water level, so we marked the tube and measured eack of the four corners and adjusted accordingly.

It worked amazingly well.

 

This is what three tons (well, 5,900-lbs) of wood looks like in my backyard.

The wood for the deck was delivered yesterday and the project is now, I s'pose, officially underway.

We ordered Southern Yellow Pine pressure-treated (MCA) and Cumaru from AdvantageLumber.com … when doing the math, it was (sadly) cheaper to buy and ship the wood — even PT — across the country than to buy locally. The Cumaru was easily available in a hefty 5/4 board thickness which will hopefully prevent cupping a bit — it's similar to Ipe, but a a much lower cost and is a bit lighter in tone. The Southern Yellow Pine is a stronger wood than is available locally and the treatment is less corrosive, so it should make for a stronger foundation overall.

We'll, of course, keep you updated as to the progress along the way.

 

I spent a good bit of the day reconfiguring the old deck plan against the measured-out reality in the yard (and aligning to physics/building code) and creating a cut list for the lumber… we’re getting closer.

It's summertime (well, almost) and we just wrapped the spring semester at school… and I'm looking at the list of summer projects. The deck tops the list — it's something that didn't get finished before the rain (and fall semester) started last year.

But now, I'm starting the project back up, re-checking measurements and plans and picking vendors.

…

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Monique, at the newly revived Eichler Homes, is willing to front the cost of your renovation prior to sale…

For a lot of folks, something like this would be unnecessary, but for someone either not having access to immediate funds or who doesn't have the time or inclination to partake in the endeavor —like maybe the sale of a parent's outdated home or in lieu of a short-sale — something like this might work out well.

I'd imagine Monique would also insist on the listing, so part of the incentive for her would be the commission (and the higher the sale price, the more commission)… but you'd hire an agent anyway, so why not hire one with a real interest in your home?

The bonus for the Eichler community is that Monique has a genuine interest in the homes and communities surrounding them — which is why she made a movie about them. Not a lot of agents can claim that.