As November 2020 rolled around I kind of ran out of excuses as to why I hadn’t bought the materials for the deck foundation. I think at the time I thought if I procrastinated enough we would end up getting out to Water Island with no building materials at hand. No building materials, no building! Just fishing and kayaking every day, with a little hanky panky thrown in during the weekends (or weekdays, or whenever!). Fortunately Princess formerly was a project engineer with a nose for required lead times. Just when I thought I was going to get away with my plan, she stepped in with her butt kicking boots. Suitably motivated, I spent several tedious days with a lot of pieces of paper trying to make sure I ordered every piece of wood and fasteners that we would ever need. No spreadsheets for me! One fun task was figuring out whether it was cheaper to buy the stuff in Florida and ship it out, or buy from the big local lumberyard, MSI. Everyone must have been building something in Florida, because although the prices were cheaper they did not make up enough difference to pay for the shipping. One challenge was the 8×8 inch main posts for the deck. They had to be special ordered locally, but my man Kush at MSI made it happen. Other things that had to be shipped separately included 300 lbs of bolts and nuts, along with 200 stainless steel joist hangers ($6 apiece!). I did get to buy a spiffy new nail gun to shoot the special stainless steel nails, this one even had a special head that lets you use it to nail the joist hangers. If you’ve ever hammered these in by hand you know what a big deal that is!
We arrived with our usual four 48 to 49 lb checked bags full of building materials. The boys were right on with the logistics so within a week the lumberyard arrived:
A little aside before we get going. You’ll notice that on the concrete post pads the mounts are not always centered. And that they are pointing a different angles. Some of this was due to us not being able to get the concrete forms in exactly the right place. This was usually because a huge underground boulder was in the way. And they face different ways because the deck has 9 sides with angled corners, so to make the corner connections easier they had to bisect the 38 degree angle of each corner. Adding to the complication was that we were taking measurements off the house versus the house foundation (which is slightly off). You might wonder how we did all this surveying. It would have been easier to use a modern surveying transit, but we decided to do it the same way the ancient Egyptians did:
We decided to start on the back side of the deck with the big 8×8 posts. At 10 feet long they weighed about 300 lbs each. On the back side we could cut them mostly at least in half so it was manageable for the two of us to do it by hand with no help. As we started standing them up we were pleased to notice them line up properly with very small corrections. Thank God our surveying was correct!
After trying to notch the first post with my circular and reciprocating saws we ended up doing a Home Depot run to get a proper saw. This one is my baby, it’s a 16 inch battery powered saw that for at least 30 minutes acts exactly like a gas powered saw without the drama of trying to start it after it’s been sitting for 6 months. I now have 2 of these and have given up on gas saws forever!
Thanksgiving came and went. Just as we ran out of the shorter posts the Calvary showed up. We had at this point 20 of the bigger posts left to set. Our buddy Cliff brought over the backhoe and we set all of them in one day. Of course it killed us, but at least the posts were up.
One thing that turned out to be a huge PITA was drilling the holes through the posts to accept the 3/4 inch bolts that attach them to the post bases. You have to come from both sides of the posts and hope the holes meet in the middle. Of course in Texas I have any manner of drilling adapters and jigs to make this easy. But I’d left them at home. The home made jig made it a little easier, but not perfect.
Of course we did take breaks from time to time. One really fun one was the day we rented the fishing charter boat “Dog Sled” for the day. Capts Art and Dereck really put the effort into finding the fish for us. In the end we ended up with one small Mahi Mahi to eat. Not a great fishing day but incredibly nice weather and fun with friends.
Then we ran into some friends who were staying at the Four Elements Culinary and Wellness Center on the island. https://www.4elementsvirginislands.com/ This is a small resort with maybe 8 different kinds of outbuildings for guests. A couple of times a year they run a weekend retreat that is extremely popular. We were lucky that our friends invited us for breakfast. The chef is a German and Michelin trained, as well as being the owner’s son in law. It was incredible!
While I’m at it there are some things that you look at and just stand back in Wonder! This is a shameless plug for Water Island Local Artist Colleen Tapp. This is the 3rd full size mural she has done on the Island. They’re all beautiful, I just happen to have a picture of this one, which is her latest.
Then it was back to the mine. We got all the posts up and then it was time to start putting up the beams which run between the posts. We nailed and glued these beams together out of several pieces of wood, depending on how long the span was. Buttercup’s limit occurred as we put up the one that was made of 3 2x12s that were 14 feet long. It was the heaviest one we had to put up, so at least it was all downhill from there.
For two weeks we bolted the posts down, and put beams up. After a while the lumberyard got smaller and you could see the outlines of the deck. About this time we received a bunch of rain which resulted in a Biblical mosquito outbreak several days later. Living out in the open got a lot less fun. Princess decided to adapt and overcome versus whining like I did.
As leaving day got closer we realized that we weren’t going to have enough time to install the soffits for the house. A big reason we did the underpinnings for the deck was so that we could do the soffits without being at the top of a 20 foot ladder. Oh well, there’s always next time. For those of you keeping track we’re up to Day 235 of construction. I have to admit that I’m being less than diligent with the building log so that’s just my best guess. For those of you who’ve been wondering, yes we have a big crime wave occurring on Water Island due to the Pandemic. Some hardened criminals arrived on the island. I was able to capture this picture of the Perps:
Thanks again for reading. I will try to be a more productive writer going forward. And upon returning home I discovered I had lost 10 pounds in 6 weeks, so running up and down ladders all day is good for you. I guess I’ll do some more later in the year. I’ll leave you with a picture of why we’re doing this. I have to remind myself sometimes as well.
