Monday, August 02, 2010

Building the new Pavilion Deck

Well, we are at last in the process of rebuilding the gazebo. Actually, as you can see by the title, we have taken to calling it the Pavilion Deck, or simply just Deck. This is due to the fact that the "gazebo" portion is only going to be a small part of the deck itself and will more resemble a rectangular pavilion than a polygonal gazebo. On the first weekend of July, I began digging 9 of the overall 11 3-foot holes that would be used to hold the poles for the deck. The first row of these I managed to get cemented in by the end of my stay.

Two weeks later, John, Mom and I went back up north and while Mom started working on cleaning the cabin and measuring the windows for the new curtains she is making, John and I finished leveling and cementing in the remaining poles. Then we laid on our outer frame rails and the inner cross rails and made ready to receive the primary joists (see first image). We, John and I also added a project to our weekend to slightly move, widen and deepen the firepit. Now, in its new location, it is more visible and accessible to the front of the cabin, while remaining a safe enough distance from it. Also, it is now roughly five feet across, 1 foot deep and is surrounded by 1 ring of stones. This will allow us to have some really lovely bonfires this Summer.

Another two weeks has gone by and this time Dad joins the three of us and helps John and I finish the lower (or main) deck. John and I had also built a rather sturdy set of steps to front the deck and provide easy access to the platform. We installed joist hangers and used pressure-treated wood to create the structure. We used 16-foot deck boards to clad the deck with and built a special joist setup so we count wrap the entire deck in mitered decking boards to give it that "picture-frame" look.

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