DIY Deck (at a leisurely pace)

Even more of the Good Life...

...As Good As it Gets

This is the last image I have of this tired old boat as it is waiting to be picked by a friend that promised to provide a warm and caring home.

While this is what I proudly presented to my wife of 20 years on our anniversary!

I can still see the look on her face...

In anticipation of "Ragging" emails to the effect that I'm a "Global Environmental Holocaust Promoter" for having a Gas motor boat, let me simply say "Fuck-off!"

Since this lake side escape is one of my few indulgences, the truck camper has been replaced with a 19ft Glendale, that was already by the lake and available for not much more than the "Float/Transport fee" some folks around us paid to get their rigs down to the lake.

This is year 2 for the Glendale, and I wanted an excuse to spend a couple of weeks here this past June (2007).

So a simple deck and roof were an ideal project, especially since the awning that came with the trailer was destroyed due to high winds the previous fall.

14 days may seem like an excessive time period to milk such a project, but one has to remember that the boat & the lake are just a few steps away, and there is nothing like sleeping through the heat of the day.

Regardless after clearing the site I laid down some slabs that would be the main base for the structure.

The sono-tubes are of differing heights and not even necessarily perpendicular to the plane of the slabs.

After some consideration I opted to cut a series of spouts in the sides of tubes that are level relative to each other per the string-line that circles the perimeter.

The concrete is mixed to a wet slurry, and added to the point of over-flowing the spouts on the tubes.

Given that additional curing time required for the tubes, I had no option but to re-read a copy of Popular Mechanics and spend the better part of a day on the lake.

I had no way of knowing that my lumber deliver would be delayed a day, so the grueling pace of cast, retrieve, change lure, read, sleep, eat, shit, drink, piss and sleep some more was sustained for 48 contiguous hours, since close to 9 months have elapsed from the ordeal, I can admit now that I have doubts that could have sustained another day of it...

Al materials are locally grown and processed by the sawmill at the head of the lake.

Certainly it would have been un-neighborly at minimum and possibly even rude to not pass a few hours with the Mill Proprietor over a cool beverage once the timber was un-loaded.

Total cost approx $350 CDN, although it is not pressure treated lumber, it is rough milled and as such dimensionally accurate as true 2X6, 2X4, 4X4 and 1" by 6" lumber.

As seasonal residents of the park, we rent our spot annually, and as renters, portability of the structure as a design criteria.

The floor is assembled as 4 (four) 6ft by 4ft section that are fastened with 3/8th" threaded rod, broad washers and nuts.

The concrete posts all found level and it is accurately translated to the beams and floor.

If left to my own devices this is where the project may well have ended, as I've settled into a low impact groove of hammer a nail, drive a screw, stand back admire, go for a swim, have a nap...

But Sandy came out for the weekend to inspect the progress to date.

Raising the top beams for the front & back were the only parts that I enlisted some help...

I guess I could have done it myself but there were folks out for the weekend, and it only seemed to make sense.

The "T-Plates" are cut from scrap 1/8th" plate that was on hand back at the farm.

Again, 3/8th" threaded rod, broad washers and nuts hold it together should the need to re-locate ever arise.

The up-rights are similarly Bolted securely to the floor structure with 3/8th" threaded rod, broad washers and nuts. As it turns out this is a surprisingly cheap way to fasten timbers together, and can be periodically tightened with a pair of wrenches as opposed to 6" or 8" spikes that spit the wood and generally will only ever hold the wood as well as the day it was pounded in and become loose over time.

With our physical living space expanded the twins even thought that they'd come out for the following weekend, but still opted to tent it rather than have to be in closed confines with the "Old-Folks"...

...and with some sun shades hung I have the perfect place to edit images, write content for theworkshop.ca or just re-align priorities and materials lists for future projects.

Over the last few years there have been big changes on 'Lake-X", after having the entire park to ourselves and another family for 2 full seasons, there are over 30 seasonal sites like ours, Hydro and Water have been plumbed in each site...

This page is being posted at the end of March 2008, where last night the mercury dipped to minus 18C, and I had to spend the morning hauling more wood for the house... In abject disgust with the lack of "Global Warming" that has been promised for the last few years, I resorted to the only objective evidence that we have a season that isn't typified by snow and started to post this page...

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