Been Busy, But Not Anything To Show

Sorry I haven't been posting with new projects lately, but the stuff I've been doing lately hasn't been exciting or photogenic.

Laying down limestone to increase the lawn pH doesn't show up in pictures.  Taking down the cages with the dead tomatoes isn't much to brag about.  Washing the windows outside and in is nice, but you can't tell anything from a photo of them.  I spent a hour cleaning fallen leaves out of the boat before I "shrink-wrap" it for the Winter (whoopee).   I even spent time scraping 20 year old paint off the garage door glass panes!  Talk about a task put off too long!  LOL!

On the other hand, some of the non-visual time has been spent considering what to do with the decks.  I have an upper and a lower deck.  It seemed a good idea at the time, but quite frankly, the larger lower deck was a complete waste of time.  I have never had any use for it.  Well, OK, its a convenient landing for the stairs from the upper deck and then to the lawn.

So I'm going to take it apart and use the well-weathered-but-still-sound 2x6x12' decking boards to rebuild my framed garden beds.  The deck boards (not in ground contact) are in much better condition than the 2x4 garden boards after 20 years.

After the lower deck is removed, I will renovate the upper deck.  The frame is sturdy (but not to "code"), and the deck boards and rails are wearing out gradually and finally warping a bit.  The 2x6 boards are fine to frame garden beds, but they will soon be a question to walk on.  And the rails were always ugly.  Rail fence style.  So I will redo the top.

I plan to rebuild the top of the deck in the same style as current.  Except, the spaces between the upper posts will have a sunburst design I can easily make myself.  What can I say, the deck needs an artistic touch.

And I want to make the patio below the deck rainproof.  Well, at least "mostly" dry in a storm.  I know a serious rain can get in at the sides no matter what I do, but I (or the cats) don't plan to be out there in THAT kind of storm.  I just want to be able to sit on the patio under the deck in a normal drizzle and not have the rain falling through the deck above.

I initially thought of removing the deck boards above, covering the joists with pressure-treated plywood, roof felt, and 5/4" deck boards.  Reading a few DIY sites convinced me that was a bad idea!  So I am going with an under-the-deck system.  I've figured out I can attach a sloped wood frame topped with ribbed plastic panels UNDER the deck!

I have been standing on the patio figuring out how to attach the wood support frame in a way I can slide the plastic panels onto it.  It will be awkward to do alone, but I'm kind of used to that.  When I initially built the deck, I had 2 friends to help.  One moved away, and the other has a bad back now.  And I can't do what I used to do either.  Getting old is hard...

But I think that is all for next Spring.  For a temporary thing, I am going to hang a tarp under the deck to see how that works.  I can do that in a day.  And I'll take pictures of that.

The laugh is I'm only trying to make the patio dry so I can put vinyl fencing around the patio and let the cats out there...

Thanks for coming by to read...  :)