There are many things that I love about our house (the neighborhood, the 2 pantries, the faucet in the powder bathroom) and a few things that I despise (the hardwood floors, the cream carpet, the yellow paint in my bathroom). Then there are the myriad of things that just kind of bug us.
The deck is one of those things. For one thing, the previous owner built it himself and did a lousy job. Seriously, the thing is going to collapse to the ground one of these days. Add to the fact that it was getting old and gray . . . well, we needed to do something about it.
We had a "deck guy" come out to give us a quote on fixing it. Our vision - a simple, rectangular deck, with a bench at one end and stairs around 2 sides. It would be about the same size as our existing deck, just reconfigured a bit. We even offered to demolish the old deck so he could come in and start fresh. "Great," he said. "That should knock off a lot from the cost."
His quote: $18,244.80. My jaw drops everytime I look at that number.
Our response: Thanks anyway. We'll just restain it and hope it doesn't collapse during our next family BBQ.
Nathan invested a lot of back work and a couple hundred dollars in supplies into the project - scrubbing, cleaning, and staining. Here it is half-way done.
And here is the finished product. You still have to be pretty cautious sitting on that bench, but at least it looks good. :-)
6 comments:
Don't you know you the right way to get a new deck? Just call it a "Service Saturday" project! Then 10 (or more) of your best friends show up, you order a bunch of pizzas and voila, new deck! Or the beginnings of a new deck, and you spend the next 20 weekends begging said best friends to come back and finish!
By the way, I like your deck. I didn't know about the safety concerns, but other than that, I think it's a very nice deck. And it looks great with a fresh coat of stain!
Hey, next time call Shane! He is way more affordable (friend discount) and Nathan and the kids could help with it.
The deck does look beautiful though. Maybe Shane could just show Nathan how to reinforce the bench?
What a lot of crap. I'd do it for you for $5K. I recently rebuilt the back porch of my duplex ... and that bought me half off rent for a year.
You need Jason...that quote is ridiculous!! Wish we lived closer!
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