We were so relieved once the concrete pour was done in July 2019. From this point forward we could finish everything that was left on the house with minimal or no help. We really shouldn’t have to hire anyone going forward. In our experience having more hands involved really doesn’t make things go any faster or better than just doing it ourselves. We (or at least I, Buttercup seems to have her own ideas) have banned ourselves from the Island from early August until the end of October every year. I’m mainly afraid of getting stuck in a bad storm. The really powerful hurricanes tend to happen during that time period. I’ve done enough Military Survival Schools not to want to repeat the experience again. Buttercup though has never had the opportunity to do some real privation so she’s not nearly as scared of late Summer in the islands as I am. So after the concrete pour was done we were away from the Island until early November.
The only projects we wanted to do with the 2 weeks we had on Island were to replace the ramp to the house with proper stairs, and to take measurements of the deck footings for our Spring deck building spree. Upon arriving we had the usual problem of getting the materials for the new stairs to our place. Our buddy Cliff the Master Builder offered to help us out when he had time. While we were waiting we decided to do fun stuff. The first was to break out our kayaks which we hadn’t used for about 6 months because we were too busy working. I had built a flimsy trailer to haul them behind our golf cart. I took some of our leftover plywood and made a nice trailer in an hour or two. No more worrying about the kayaks taking a spill on the way to the water.
The next thing was to replace the Death Ramp we had been using to get into the house since we started. We had gotten very good at negotiating it ourselves, but every time we had visitors we were afraid someone might take a bad tumble. About the only good thing about the ramp was that it helped to keep our alcohol consumption down at night. This was because we knew at some point we would have to make it down the ramp in order to get to our bed in the container. Cliff soon arrived not only with the materials for the stairs but with the risers and treads pre-cut! This was really nice because although I have made stairs before I was rusty on the formula for good stairs. And if you’re just a little off the measurements the stairs can take even a Prima ballerina for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Princess and I assembled them over a couple of days.
These stairs will eventually be moved over about 10 feet to connect the deck with the driveway. They are sized for that spot so to make them work here I had to shim a little bit. Still a lot better than the ramp. The last work project was to get elevations off of each deck footing. This is so I can order the 8×8 inch wood posts for the deck. I made a measuring board and broke out the water level.
It took an hour or two but we soon had elevations for all 34 deck post foundations. The longest posts will be 16 feet long for the Widow’s Walk by the bathroom. Most of the ones on the Ocean side of the house will be about 10 feet long. The plan right now is to buy another 20 foot container in Miami and load it up with the lumber and supplies for the deck. We will have a month or so off in the Spring. Hopefully soon after that we’ll have at least the underpinnings of the deck completed.