Deck Party Aside: Home Depot

So when Scott applied for his Home Depot card, his first purchase got 10% off, so we decided to get as much stuff on that charge with that discount as possible. We bought a lot of the hardware for the deck and also some tools we needed to build it. One of these tools was a miter saw:

Yay! It's been super useful!

But how we got to super useful is a funny little thing...

We originally bought the saw a few weeks ago, before we even ordered the Trex. We pulled it off the shelf, where is was packaged and advertised as "new", not as "used". So, we assumed it was new and we didn't open it until we were ready to use it.

So the morning we actually started building the deck and needed it, we opened it and it was very obviously used: filthy, coated in sawdust, scratched up, and missing several parts. So, my mom and I made one of many many trips back to Home Depot to exchange it.

So we got there and went to the service desk, and they were super nice about it and looked to see if there were another we could exchange for. There was, so they sent an employee over to take a look at it and make sure it was new. It wasn't. It had also been opened and returned, but we thoroughly checked and made sure all the parts were there and everything was in amazing shape, so we decided to take it even though it wasn't "new". We figured we'd ask if they would discount it since it had been opened. They said yes and gave us $35 off, which made it an amazing deal!

So we got it home and opened it up and we were about to put it together when we noticed...some parts were missing! We were a little puzzled until Home Depot called us (which was very nice of them) to tell us that when we were going through the box to make sure all the parts were there we forgot to put some of them back in the box...so back to Home Depot we went. We got those parts and then we were able to set up the saw and get to work. Kinda funny.

When we ordered the deck stuff we also ordered our new back door and the LVL header for it. The door was delivered just fine...but no LVL. It was pretty late on a Friday night when it was finally delivered so we went to Home Depot in the morning to see if we could find it. We looked, the employees looked, and it was nowhere to be found...yeah. They think the deliver guy picked it up but didn't deliver it and lost it somewhere along the way. Maybe he delivered it to someone else with their order. Either way, we couldn't put the door in without the header, so we had to wait until Monday, when the pro desk said they would find us an LVL, pick it up from the lumber yard themselves, and deliver it to our house in person. And they did, which was awesome...

The LVL was the wrong size.

Fortunately we were able to make it work, so no harm done I suppose.

It was just really annoying. We've always loved Home Depot; we still do. But when things keep getting messed up (I forgot to mention that when the decking was delivered there were some parts that were wrong. That was another trip to Home Depot to get the right parts...) we quickly become disenchanted with them.

But they're still better than Lowe's.

Deck Party, Part 4

After the week where Scott and I barely got anything done (being sick is so AWESOME. Not.) we were going to have my mom come back up the following weekend (May 15-16) to work on the deck more. However, Friday night she was feeling a bit sick so we were going to see if she felt better Saturday morning. She didn't call me in the morning so I assumed she wasn't feeling better and was resting, and we started without her (turns out she was up all night throwing up, poor thing). Fortunately Ben was able to come over and help more, and I wasn't feeling sick so I was able to help as well.

Since the framing was done, the next step was going to be putting the decking on, so that's where we started:


It actually went by pretty quickly compared to the framing, so we got tons done. Here is a shot of some of the (almost) finished edges:


It's looking so good!

Ben had to get going around noon so before he left we ordered pizza as a thank you (and I also got him a thank you/housewarming gift for his new house) and he and Scott ate out on the deck, enjoying the sunshine:


Ben and Scott had gotten almost all the decking put down so before we put the railing up we wanted to get the new back door put in. Scott pulled off the siding and took the floodlights out:

Here's how the side of the house looked before we put the door in:

The door had been delivered, but the LVL header we ordered for it was lost somewhere along the way, so we couldn't put the door in until we got that delivered. On Sunday (May 16) Scott started on the railing but didn't get far before we decided to call it quits and veg for the rest of the day.

More to follow!

This is taking way longer than we thought it would. But it's turning out well, so I can't complain.

Deck Party, Part 3

So after my mom went home Sunday afternoon (May 9) Scott and I decided we would work on the deck after work during the week. However, sometime on Sunday Scott started to feel sick, so for the next two days he was dying at home in bed. I didn't get as sick as he did so I still went to work, but I went home early one afternoon to get some rest. So, to make a long story short, we didn't work on it at all until Thursday after work. Since on Sunday we had gotten the frame totally rebuilt Scott just had to plumb and nail in the joists.

Next up was doing the last part of the framing, which was the staircase:


Scott had a really fun time getting these level (that was dripping with sarcasm, by the way).

We are so glad we bought this miter saw, because it made cutting through the composite beams so fast and easy!



So Scott started getting boards placed on the staircase. It's not finished because we need to trim the sides of the boards and add fascia to the sides and the vertical spaces between the individual steps.




Scott got all the boards on the stairs screwed on and we took the ceremonial first steps up the staircase, but we didn't get a picture of that because I forgot.



So that's the end of Part 3.


Stay tuned for more madness.

Deck Party, Part 2

Saturday (May 8) we woke up bright and early and went to Home Depot to rent a hammer drill. Then we went to Maverik for munchies and caffeine, and then once Ben got to our house we got started. First up was drilling the holes into the foundation to mount the ledger. Next was drilling holes in the concrete pad for the posts. Attaching the posts and leveling them took a long time. When you spend five grand on decking materials you want to make sure it's very very level.



Having my mom around was so much fun! She's useful, too. Here she is with my Scott just having a blast while putting in carriage bolts (I learned the names of lots of tools and lots of hardware!):




This was the ultimate carriage bolt. I think it was like a foot long. That one took so long to hammer in, and then it took so long to get the washer and nut screwed on that my mom and Scott had to take turns!



Of course once we got a big chunk of the frame done Scott had to test its structural integrity:



Now at this point something interesting happened. Well, not so much interesting as...well, you'll see.


It turns out we had two problems. One was that our concrete pad was neither square at the corners, straight on the edges, or even level. The other was that Home Depot made the plans wrong. They have this computer program that designs decks. You just put in your parameters and it gives you plans that are up to code and everything. Now the code on deck stairs is that they have to be at least three feet wide or else they won't pass inspection. The computer program gave us plans and when we got all the posts and framing done (except the stairs) it became apparent that the stairs would be a few inches too narrow. Oops. So, with both these problems, a lot of things weren't quite working out...so here are my mom and Scott, trying to decide what to do about this:

Here they are, testing to see what is square and what isn't. Note the frustrated look on Scott's face:

So here is a look at how much we got done before we figured out that we had to tear almost all of it down and start over, re-drilling the holes in the concrete so we could reposition the posts so the stairs would be up to code:

Heartbreaking, isn't it?

Anyway, Sunday we woke up again (not as bright and not as early) and got back to work (after going to Home Depot and renting that tool AGAIN). Fortunately the beams were all already cut so we just had to reposition and re-level some things and Sunday we got the entire frame re-built (except the stairs) so at least we got that far. My poor Scott was starting to feel sick, but at this point we figured Scott would probably be able to finish himself, with a little of my help, so my mom went home and we took hot showers, changed into pajamas, and called it a night.

Don't worry, the story doesn't end here.

I'll continue the story on the next episode of "Deck Party"!

Anniversary Time!

So Scott and I have now been married for three years. Our anniversary was this past Tuesday, May 11.

It's been a good three years, even through the bad times.

Here's to another three years. And three more after that. Etc.

We went to a nice dinner at Corbin's, a more upscale steakhouse close to us. The atmosphere was fun, our server was amazing, and I just felt like it was an extra special meal. We got some amazing crab stuffed mushrooms:



But the most special part of this anniversary was the real present Scott got me:

New wedding rings with more sparklies! And check out that paper cut on my middle finger. Oh yes.

Deck Party, Part 1

So this past weekend (May 7-9) we started to build our deck. We were hoping to get it all done this past weekend, and we thought that was a good, achievable goal, since my mom and Scott's friend Ben were both coming to help us. Four people in one weekend? Totally doable, right?

Nope.

Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat, and thought nothing of it, assuming it was just allergies (and that happens all the time, so no red flags). Friday afternoon I started to get a bit stuffy in the nose area and by Friday night I was starting to get body aches. YAY FOR GETTING A COLD. Perfect freaking timing.

So that put our deck building team at three people, which is probably still doable, right? We'll see about that.

So Friday night my mom came up to our house and we got everything prepped and ready for when the real work started in the morning. Here's Scott and my mom making a sawhorse:


Scott had stayed home that day to accept delivery of the decking stuff we ordered, so after it came he got started building the ledger, and when I got home it was pretty much done.

We also got out all the tools, and Scott was excited to use his new 18V kit, and you can also see the boxes and boxes and boxes of nails and screws we got:

Anyway, so Friday night was Part 1. This is turning out to be quite a large project, so there will be several posts over the next few weeks, spreading out the story into more easily digestible bits