Updates

Been a slow month, nothing monumental happening, just some painstaking work. A few do overs.
Kitchen started, photos soon.

September Soundtrack

I've had many a project that has been accompanied by classic soundtracks. Did a whole hardwood flooring with Beck's Midnite Vultures and Train, I think. Yuk on the latter.

Anyways, Deck Project has been long enough to cycle through a number, but noted the following have been played a lot the last month...

First up,

JAPAN'S GENTLEMEN TAKE POLAROIDS.... Roxy Music-meets-Duran Duran-meets-David Sylvan ;-) It's a 3" CD version (which I still possess) of 12" remixes.

More Yellow.....Lost mi love on de queen's hi'way.... classic.

Many assorted lounge/ambient... but Lounge Mediterranean, which went to St Bartholemy's, and end up in the drink... has a great variety, double disc too.

Lastly.. Farina....

DJ Mark Farina..

Mushroom Jazz 4
Mushroom Jazz 2
Mushroom Jazz 10.2 (unlreased)
Mark on the Jon Digweed Show (KISS-FM, England) (unreleased)
Garden of Eden 3 (unreleased)

Coming Up

"Stick around..... It's coming up!!!"

Wasn't it McCartney off of McCartney II that sung that... or no

Wings?

McCartney and Wings?

Paul McCartney?

That "Ricky" bass he played was pretty sweet, fat rich sound.


Anyways, time to start planning and building some framework for the kitchen...

Centerpiece'd around the mega Viking BBQ. Will be fun turning those knobs, getting some serious heat going...



Can't wait for que'ing n' Love'n!!!



"It's coming up, like a flower. It's coming up, I can feel it in my bones".

Nice lyrics Paul. So heavy mate.

Progress thru Labor Day

About here's where we're at....

Railing is painstakingly slow.... lotsa detail needed...



Got a bit done this Labor Day Weekend....

German Quality Control

The Berlin Bowser, AKA the Hamburg Hound providing some quality control.









Hot tub cover sturdy. Check.












Deck cover lounge-able. Check.

A Visit From the Deck Whisperer

The DECK WHISPERER visited me as an oracle-meets-muse...

I quietly stood still, she floated heavenly across the redwood and stainless steel...

Then...

She paused....

Slowly looked up, opened her eyes....


and asked me, "WHAT THE F*%K are you doing with a pink extension cord ???"



I was hoping she would answer that for me.

More Art vs Science with Posts

Uh oh..... that's not good...


Time to go Grizzly Adams with a little Lincoln Log action n' whittlin'



Viola!

Postal Afterthoughts

Man the afterthoughts pour like hot butter on ....

Just a pain to run into this crap...




Strength/support isn't really compromised either.

I call it "Web With Wood"



Next morning the little f'er had taken every little piece of sawdust off. Shame to still have to tear it down.

Coverage begun...

We're movin' now. Getting some coverage, with inspection by 'security'. She seems to be most enthusiastic with the progress.

MyDeckProject Blog Press Release

Press Release

Source: DeckProjectBlog

MyDeckProject Blog Announces Hot Tub Integration
Monday August 6, 4:45 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The MyDeckProject Blog announced today the placement of the hot tub onto the hot tub deck. Although not completed wired in, nor filled up with water, nor stained, nor with railing, nor stairs to get in, it places Deck Project into a clear next phase. Spokeswoman Vishnu Love Hewitt remarked, " with countless hours in the planning, preparation and building of the hot tub deck... it was clearly time". Ms Love Hewitt added, "thanks to participation of the local community we decided to go for it on Sunday afternoon. Although skeptical at first, the chief engineer called it a go, as the weather conditions were just perfectly awful with an intermittent drizzle."
The DeckProjectBlog plans to work with local union members (or not) on electrical installation, and then begin to stress test with varying levels of water. Spokeswoman Love Hewitt, continued "safety has always been a first priority, and will continue to be."

Spokeswoman, Vishnu Jennifer Love Hewitt
Inside Hot tub (photo courtesy DeckProjectBlog)

In additional news, a volunteer helped to provide a protective Banana Slime layer to a number of deck joists for additional weatherproofing.


Note: tanbark stuck to said volunteer's mucus plug (at the end of the slug)

........................ tub's in

What's that peekin' out of the corner?



Impromptu ramp to make it not only easy to get across the rocks, but get near the deck height to tip the tub over on to it.

Voila! It's on. Took of the side panels, and screwed in these boards which served to slide the tub, lift it to turn it, and mostly to roll it down the lawn on.

Still will have access to the panel. So far it seems to be in a great place.

Woohoo.

View from above....

Thought this gives yet another perspective.

Hot Tub Deck Framing

The tub pre-staining.

16-guage x-bracing... joists about 14" on center...

2x10 beams.... 2 feet of cantilever, but I think we'll be fine...

Strapping up close.

Some of what went into the hot tub deck. Hopefully, it goes on top sooner than later.

Hot Tub Deck

Concept was never to put the hot tub on the deck, via retrofitting a particular area of the deck. So I wanted to build the hot tub it's own platform... debating between having set REALLY low (relative to the deck) and pour a phat concrete slab... or try to elevate it (ai-i-i-i-i-i... elevating 5,000 lbs... I may be Frank Gehry artistically , but I'm no Webcor).

X-brace with a bolt in th' middle... helps a tremendous amount on any sway.... rumble-rumble-from-underneath-in-the-rubble...


Some triangulation as well... spread some weight, allow for movement (but not in the deck...)

To be honest... I'm not sure what strapping a 4x12 beam to the 6x6 post that anchors a lot of the deck. I guess should the hot tub take off to the side... it might drag the deck with it (thanks to the straps).


The finished tub deck. Note the 16-gauge strapping underneath. I'm not so worried about the weight pushing down (really I'm not), it's more about when/if 5,000 pounds of water should decide to rock back and forth. The different sized boards (all pressure-treated) was at random to mix strength, but still allow for gaps if/when water gets under the tub. With the gaps, water would sit, and eventually compromise the wood. I might even still drill a slew of small 1/4 inch holes a top the planks, to ensure complete drainage...much less stain/treat/prime the hell out of the wood. I'm still not convinced it's done... ugh.

Site of phase II, already begun... and probably done in parallel with topping the main part of deck... want the hot tub first, then adjust and build around, much less get the electricity out to it.

Random Observations

Last weekend, some blue mangy bird showed up and hung out. At first I thought it was sick, or injured. But no..... just nosey, lonely, and lookin' to hang out.... a little too much.



---
Brave little guy... would wait by the door when I went inside too, maybe he'll come 'round this weekend.





Artistic finds during a deck project....

Let's call this one, "Mallet Swirl"



And this one, is "Someone Bored With The Sticker Gun At The Lumber Mill"




Ok that sucked. I'll stop.

Home For A Hottub

Looks like building a "separate deck" for a huge heavy hottub is next phase. A 12" pier as the cornerstone, then 4x10's as ledgers and beams... some triangulations... lotsa joists, tons of hurricane ties, coil straps, gum, luck, ...

First things first... move this giant whatever-ma-joggy plant. So I twined it up... and then spent a good hour plus trenching it out, and oh my this f'er was surprisingly too heavy to even try to carry.



Then a ledger for the joists to attach to one end.

Lining up to the 12" pier which will sport another 4x10, to act as a beam.



More later.... it'll all make sense.

Help Has Arrived

June was a very slow month, but I'm thinking July will go much better with the arrival of some help.




A 12 inch concrete tube form..... great sitter to keep the little ones free from danger and limbs attached throughout the project.

-----

This is hot....

Nothing to do with the deck....




So here's a picture of some concrete...

Starting stairs....

So many places to get work done... turns out stairs wound up next.

A quick mock stair horse... providing a sense of how the stairs can/will figure out.

The rest follow suit

Interim steps, but I might keep em as it's easy to get up on the joists.

A slow week....

Not much gettin' done this week. Busy weekend and weekdays.... not even worth a chronicle. A little worried since the upcoming weekends are much the same.... little deck time.

Thorn's Progress

Dateline 05.30.2007.R14.9098880443

Here's where it's at, as of a couple hours ago...puuuuuuuurty.



Phase 1.5... near future site of the lower level, which will parlay itself into the hottub... will be here:

and said hottub circa... about here...