Ginormous Deck Phase 1 complete

I have to give a lot of credit to my father for giving me the layout for the deck. He had the idea how to lay out the support and decking, both of which I think were great ideas. Using deck blocks and mounting support beams on the exterior walls saved a lot of work.

I can't discuss the construction without also thanking my childhood friend Jason enough. He is not handy by any definition, but repeatedly volunteered and worked under rather extreme conditions for nearly two months. The deck could not have been completed in time without his hard work and I can not thank him enough for his efforts.

Jason was not the only friend that helped with the construction. In one afternoon, Jason, Nick and I laid the deck for over 3/4 of this section of the deck. It was a LOT of work and it was very, very hot that day.

Here is a nice action photo of Nick screwing down some of the deck. In high school he had some experience building docks down in Stuart, FL. He gave me some great pointers during construction and I can not thank him enough for the asstiance he gave during this project. He insisted that it was just pre-payment for my help to hang drywall in the room above his garage, but he still went above and beyond.











Here is a nice photo of the first section of the deck after completion. In the background is a nice portabel gazebo we used for shade that Melissa's parents gave us. It really came in handy during construction even though we failed to take advantage of it once the sun was beating down on us. I didn't think it was possible to get this much work done in a single afternoon, but Nick and Jason proved me wrong. If only we were more than a third of the way done :-\