Family Mellmann

The deck isn't finished yet, but the first delivery of deck furniture arrived today.  I'm not certain (won't be until we actually unpack the boxes), but according to the shipping papers this is all of the deck furniture we ordered except for one umbrella. That's eight chairs, two tables, and a double chaise lounge that will need to be...assembled...by us.  I wonder who will finish first, us (assembling furniture) or the builder (finishing the deck).

And once again we have action on the deck.  Now that our decking materials are officially two weeks old on site, the builder came back to work.  Unfortunately, they were driven indoors at lunchtime by the rain, which appears to be here for the duration of the day.  Hopefully tomorrow will be dryer.

It's not often that two interests come together in one activity.  Rarer still is when three interests come together, but when they do, you can be sure it will be a good time. Recently, a friend posted a link on Facebook about to a new "adventure activity" in the Adirondacks.  It combined several things that this family enjoys.  With the possible exception of Katherine, who prefers to hide away in her room reading, we like to be outside.  We also enjoy bike rides (again, Katherine is the exception) and railroads...and history.  We even made a motorcycle ride part of the day's journey. So the Rail Explorers adventure is a railroad mounted bike.  You can rent a two-seat bike or a four-seat bike, depending on your needs.  We took a four-seater, of course.  The "sled" has four recumbent style bike seats with pedals (and one of the seats has a hand brake), a floor for easy boarding, and a basket with several bottles of water.   The six mile stretch of ra

As estimated, the decking wood (we are using Ipe ) arrived within the week of being ordered.  The truck arrived at 10:45 and I began unpacking the palletts.  Patrick is still at youth retreat (an annual event with the church) so Katherine joined me to help prepare a place to stack the wood, and we began the unloading. Here comes the truck!  Just over 2.5 tons of wood must be unloaded...by hand.  Katherine brought several loads of wood to be used as spacers for the stacked Ipe.  Joerg came home from work to help, and the contractors joined us.  We worked for about two hours and got all the wood sorted and stacked, and the truck cleaned out and ready to return.  Now...we wait for about two weeks for the wood to acclimate before our contractors return to finish the deck.  That will give us time to run a gas line for the grill and electrical for some lighting and an outlet.

Framing of the new deck finished today and our contractor packed up his toys (sorry...TOOLS) and went home.  Yep, he took everything, including the trailer that he stores his tools in.  But he'll be back. Everything is now in place fort the decking material, which will arrive tomorrow morning (which is why our contractor took his trailer home...to make room for the large truck that will come with the wood).  Once the wood is unloaded from the truck, it will sit onsite for about a week to acclimate to the local environment.  After that time has passed, our contractor will come back and finish the deck. In the meantime, we have some electrical work to do, and a gas line to run.

Monday was a hot sunny day on the south side of the house (where the deck is), but they made good progress on the framing. Slightly cooler temperatures and overcast skies made this day (Tuesday) a little easier for the construction work.  Steps to the lawn are getting some finishing touches, and the first set of steps from the house to the deck were added today. From the dining room. I see some flower pot potential on this deck. :)  We'll have some dirt work to do once the deck is done.

Things have been oddly busy around here, but framing of the deck continues.  The weather has been surprisingly cooperative, although a couple of the days got a little warm for comfortable work on the south side of the house. The yard looked more like a lumber yard than a garden for a few days there, but the guys have been working hard to keep things moving. Katherine models the 12 inch on center framing..she's the only one in the family who can fit her hips in between the floor joists. :) I can almost picture a dining table and umbrella sitting there. Getting our hands on the decking materials (not to be confused with the framing material, which is standard pressure treated wood) was a little touch-and-go this passed week, but we were able to make a final decision and find a supplier who can (hopefully) deliver by late next week (July 16 or 17).  That could work out nicely as there are a few more days of framing, and then we have some electr

Work on the deck continues. It's raining pretty hard today, but the guys keep going; they're wet, but not deterred. Yesterday's hiccup, an unexpected septic tank left over from many many years ago when this property was still on well and septic, slowed down progress temporarily, but it looks like they might put in the last footing today.   Monday - first three footings buried   Monday - last footing of the day...it's surprisingly exacting work, but the finished deck will be awesome!   Today - rain makes the work messy, but they forge on   I'm sure that they are pushing hard to get the last footing in today, but I may have to fire up that coffee maker pretty soon.