Got up to Inverness after a brutally busy day of graduate student orientation / dog and pony show, and hitched a ride with Keith via his son's soccer game in Napa. Arrived to find that Muggs and John Liu had had a huge day milling, and my former student Bryan Jaeger had put in 4 hours after his schoolday had finished, demo'ing like a demon.
I'm too tired to add captions. Must sleep. [I added a few later]
Happy man and his Sawzall.
We arose Saturday to light drizzle or heavy mist, and still some old supports that had to go.
With the old joists cut away, the old posts could be levered down and put aside for salvaging.
Meanwhile all the usable deck boards had to be de-nailed and have the rotted cut blocks cut out, without damaging the surface too badly.
Bryan J was an absolute monster working on the ledger, sistering in boards where the Graveson crew had left gaps six years ago (when they had done some patching of joists too) and then securing the special joist hangers for the pressure-treated lumber.
The guy on the left is my old friend and workout buddy Keith, who traded in his usual fine cabinetmaking (Summit Woodworks) for a kick-ass day of framing.
Heaving the joists onto the frame was more good core work worthy of Pilates...
... and this shot from the third floor balcony shows the progress.
All the joists and blocks had to be nailed and toe-nailed, but Keith was in the flow for several hours....
as was the table saw team up on the badminton court, taking care not to overdrive the saw nor have the 18-foot boards bind up. Bravo Jim, Bryan M, Jeff Sharp, John Liu and later Will Stringfellow!
The last few blocks we did in tandem, which was kind of fun.
Meanwhile Tom and his wife Lindsey had been busy on the west side of the deck getting ready for the rail supports, which Tom had pre-fabbed earlier in the week.
This design is way stronger than the original, and keeps the same 15-degree angle that is so characteristic of this deck while adding much more structural integrity below.
After the rot had been cut out of both edges of each board, the planer peeled off the top face to reveal often gorgeous tight-grained redwood that you can't buy anymore.
When I saw this at the end of the day I got a little choked up.
When Bryan J had to leave I insisted on a group photo; Jacquie took this so she's not in it.
