All hands on deck

Remember when I mentioned that in our hunt for the lock-box, our first up-close look at the house was at the backdoor via the rotten deck? Yeah...Whacked-up wooden wowzers! This thing was covered in slimy wood mold (way beyond a good cleaning). Because that deck was our way into the backyard, we decided that we would need to quickly replace it or risk falling off or through it at any given moment.

We could tell someone really enjoyed the backyard at some point in time.  The deck had been doubly extended to hold a hot tub, little benches were placed around the edges, and there were landscaping beds surrounding the perimeter.

But it had seen better days.  The decking boards were soft and cracked.  The additional extension was sagging and the boards on the 2nd half ran perpendicular to the older decking. Their faded appearance suggested they hadn't been sealed with waterproofing stain.  Only the area where the hot tub once resided looked like wood.  There were rails on the old half, but none of the other. Whoa...The benches were gliders, but not on purpose.  The flower beds were empty.

The only thing good about this old deck was the cute dog who loved lying on the only safe part (where the hot tub once resided!)

So a crowbar, hammer, and a little elbow grease later, the benches, lattice underpinning, and half the deck were gone.

We discovered the sagging second half was due to poor craftmanship.  Half the deck was supported by concrete deck supports.  The other half was supported by a joist unevenly and insecurely setting on rotten stairs! Instead of removing the short decks stairs they simply built on top!

The joists underneath the rotten decking were quite salvageable and we considered using at least part of them to build the new deck.  But once we figured out our new deck plans, we decided to extend the deck a few feet in every direction making the old pieces unusable.

At least to us.  We decided to craigslist all the old decking.  A few days later, a nice man came and got most of the wood (even the yucky pieces) to salvage into chicken houses. My hubs and the man disassembled the pieces and loaded them up. Yay for us, the landfill, and the chickens!

Keep following to see more of our deck renovation!