IT'S GONE!!!! Part one: the deck

Mudroom, deck.... you were warned.
You continued being rotten and ugly so now you've been ripped out of my life forever.

FOREEEEEVERRRRRRRR

PART ONE:
This is going to be a pretty picture heavy and long post. I have a lot of finger pointing and best practise advise to give on this subject. Especially on how NOT to build an outbuilding that one's family might be using once a day.

To start off with: the deck was rotten. Greg had to replace a few boards last year before our Canada Day party so that no one would fall through and/or stab their foot into a nail. This is what it looked like before:

early spring and it always looks so bare. before anything has happened.

have a mentioned how much i hate red painted wood???? I also really hate that white plastic lattice

the un painted boards are the new ones. don't you love those short length boards there? nothing like measuring before you cut...

this is what i look at every day when coming home. makes me really happy.

this is like the only non-rotting part of this deck. too bad its ghastly.

rotten

rotten. these ones did a looney tunes-esque board to the face when you stepped on them

the left is the original deck. they added on at some point.

We weren't sure when we were going to rip this out, and if we would also take off the mudroom at the same time. Well last weekend was a really nice weekend, the first warm one of the spring (this years winter was loooong). Gregs friend said he would take all the wood to burn at his cottage so we paid him in beer and gas money and he came and helped. Which was awesome cause the kids were home for a bit. We promptly dropped them off at their grandparents house and I did some furniture refinishing while the menfolk laboured in the misty rain.

bye bye boards

lined up really well. this footing was not footed, it jiggled and was basically floating in a dirt hole

this is what a deck looks like, unassembled

the supports.

 It appears that there was an older portion of the deck (which was cedar!), that was then added on to. I have an old photo album that was left in this house that shows the older part before the addition. It seems that it was added on in the 80's, probably at the same time the kitchen was redone. The older deck does not appear to be original to the house, as there is a asphalt covered concrete walkway under it. It is all gravel and busted up granite under there (dude was a headstone maker, this was obviously a broken headstone. Creepy? Meh not really, I've seen worse around here!)

bit of a step down there, now...

when you already covered the walkway with asphalt, the only thing left to do is build a deck over it. duh...

the old footings are poured concrete. new ones, not so much. those big rocks at the top were meant to be over someone's grave *cue creepy ghost music*

 Under the newer part is all mud. Which is pretty much what we expected. Not big surprises yet. Actually we didnt have any surprises concerning this deck. Which in itself is a surprise!!! It didn't take too long for the guys to get all the boards up and the supports knocked out. Greg even had time to make a new fence out of the deck rails, to replace the old fence that was the last remaining particle board in the yard (fiiiinallyyyyyyy).

just what i always wanted; my own mud pit! let the redneck olympics begin!

new fence is much better than old fence

old fence, you sucked.

It was then decided that the mudroom was coming off the next day. It was easier for Greg's buddy to just take all the wood. I was not ready to loose my child herding station. But sometimes a mama has to suck it up and see the bigger picture.

I'll post the mudroom demolition soon (I promise!!) cause that's where the finger pointing gets really good :) AND I KNOW YOU ALL LIKE FINGER POINTING.