Deck Transformation!

While looking through my photos, I realized I had never posted our finished deck!  My bad!  So, here is a re-cap!  The deck on the Shack goes across the front of the house on the 2nd story.  When we bought the Shack, 5 years ago, we knew we would need to do something with it.  It was functional and not bad looking, but the railing was wobbly in places and there was rot in the beams where they stuck out from under the roof over the deck.  I guess the previous owners had not thought that treating them with something was worth the effort.  Anyways...

Here is what the deck looked like for about a year, from 2011-12, after we took off the rotten wood and the railings.  Trev was left with the task of creating a base for the deck that would also serve as a roof for the sunroom that we had decided to put under the deck.  It had been open, but we wanted to utilize the space for more house.  So, I went off to cook at camp the first year, hoping to return to a finished deck.  Silly me!

While we were away, Trev did manage to put down a layer of tar paper, covered with rolled roofing, all tarred and tacked and water tight.  We liked the look of the old decking which was very thick, heavy, rough cut lumber.  It was uneven though, so the plan was to plane one side to even it all out.  Well, when the cats away....Trev started to put down the old decking on top of landscaping ties, without planing it. Basically, what he did was make pallets with the ties and the planks.  Each section, or pallet, was about 8' x 4' and heavy!!!  The picture above shows them in place on the deck.  It looks okay in the picture, but the gaps between the boards were huge!  Like 1" or more!  Everything would fall through them and disappear!  So, as much as I hated to do it, and I put it off, believe me...I had to ask that we re-do it.  He had not gotten it finished anyways, so, that made it a bit easier.

Anyways, instead of taking all the pallets he'd made apart, we carried these very heavy and big things along the side porch, and down to the driveway, where they sat as a sort of  'dock' to the front steps as in the picture above.( I finally moved these with Alley last summer just prior to our family reunion.)
Now that the deck was back to just the roofing level, we went and bought proper treated decking.

I was pretty excited!  We had the family reunion coming up in August, I was going to be heading to tree planting camp again in May, and I wanted the decking down before I left.  We had already decided to get a guy in to do the basement and thought we might as well get him to finish the railing on the deck as well. So, it needed to be done to that point so he could get it done while I was away.  We got started...

Treated 2 x 4's first....

Followed by treated 1 x 4 decking, pulled very tightly against each other and screwed in place.

Continuing...

And so on...

Decking done!

This is how the deck looked when I left for tree planting camp in May 2012.  Off I went with high hopes of lots being accomplished while I was away!  Unfortunately, the deck was not done when we got home...but it did get done in time for the family reunion!  The bedrooms for the kids were done though, which was great!

So, here it is all done!  Yay!  It was ready and all safe for my granddaughter and my twin nieces to play on.
There are still a few last bits to do, like trim to cover the flashing with all the tar drips showing, but for the most part it's done!  I enjoy our deck so much!

Back Home to The Little Shack.

It was a wonderful 3 weeks visiting with my kids on Vancouver Island!  Lots of laughs, sharing and just being together.  The highlight was, of course, the birth of my beautiful little grandson, Nicholas David (Davy!).  But, now it's Granddaddy's turn to be there and Zac and I have made the trip home.

Our home situation is a pain when it comes to going away from it.  With horses and chickens, you can't just leave them a big bowl of food and water and let them take care of themselves....they have to be cared for every day.  So...as a result, unless our neighbours are around, (which they aren't right now) we have to do our trips away in shifts.  This time of year, our neighbours are usually off somewhere warm and sunny, and we take care of their dog, Lucy.  We exchange animal caring throughout the year, with them feeding and watering animals for us when we are away for months on the trapline or at tree planting camp, and us having Lucy stay with us while they are away for months in Mexico.  It works for both of us.

But, this year, we are going to be downsizing.  Trev retires next month from the RCMP, and we want to be able to go away whenever we want without having to worry about critters.  So, the horses and chickens will be going to new homes.  I'll miss them terribly, but it's time.  The cats are fine on their own for weeks at a time, and the dogs go with us.  Zac now has Rango, his Bearded Dragon, and we have a turtle as well, but they can be left with friends. .

In the meantime, Zac and I are chill-axing for a couple of days, and then need to get stuck into getting the house back into shape.  Trev is not much of a housekeeper, so after 3 weeks of baching-it, it needs some attention.  He is getting better though!  The sink was NOT full of dishes, the bathroom was usable and the bed was made when we got home!  

The worst part of coming home at this time of year is the melting snow. YUK!  The snow melts, makes mud, uncovers all the dog poop....you get the picture.  It's nasty.  I really dislike this time of year.  Not only is it a lot of work to clean up, but because of my job and having to leave for it in May, I don't even get to see it green up!  The daffodils come out after I've left, the leaves pop, the grass grows...I miss it all.  I come home at the end of July and we are in full summer swing.  My garden is a jungle! Which means lots more work.  Then we hit fall and it all dies! I feel like I'm missing so much being away from home at that time of year.  It really sucks!  After being on the Island it is hard to come back to this.  There, the crocuses and snowdrops were blooming, and the daffodils starting to.  The leaves were beginning to show up and it was feeling very spring-like.  It feels like spring here, but it's a gooey, drippy kind.  

We are looking at making some huge changes in our lives with Trev's early retirement (he's 49 this year).  For one, he wants to spend more time on the trapline.  I'm not into spending any more time than we already do there, but it's his thing.  We are also realizing that we don't want to live here any more.  Princeton is 40km away, so we have never really become a part of the community.  Where we live, we also haven't really made a place in the community for ourselves.  That's probably due to the fact that many of the people who live here have grow-ops (drug grow operations) and don't really want a cop for a friend!  We haven't grown attached to the area. So, we have decided to move.  I don't know how long the process will take, but I'm hoping no more than a year.  The kids need to be in a place that can provide them with more social interactions with people their own age.  Our area provides zilch.  

There are many reasons to go, and only 1 to stay.  We own our house outright.  We certainly don't want to go back into a mortgage, so we will need to sell before buying again, and what we buy will depend on what we get for the Shack.  I know I will miss the peace and solitude of life here on the Hill, and I'm hoping we will be able to find something where I can find that again.  One of the other reasons for moving is to be closer to our grown kids.  I am really feeling like we are missing out on so much by being so far away from them.  A trip to see them takes 6 hours of driving and a 2 hour ferry ride, which costs about $200 round trip. We go about 2 times a year, and they try to come out at Christmas and in August.  But, it's the day to day things I really miss. Birthdays, family dinners, just visiting and being there to help each other out with things.  I want to be a bigger part of my kids' lives, and now my grandkids.  Plus, my mom lives there too, and could use some help with her yard and garden.  All kinds of reasons to go, and just the one to stay.  

First thing though, is to get the basement finished.  The house will sell better, and for more if the basement has been done.  So, that's the aim for this summer.  Get the basement done.  We will be able to enjoy it until the house sells too!  I'm not sure how this process will pan out.  But, I'm already cruising the real estate listings!