Decking and Visiting...

The Edmonton deck building project is well on its way to completion but a one day rain delay opened some time for visiting. 

Deni's utility trailer loaded with the deck building materials.

Wednesday proved to be a fruitful day to build the support structure for the small deck off Deni and Courtney's kitchen.  Starting with installing the header and joist supports, the 8' X 8' deck took shape in reasonable time.  Working alone meant having to place supports in certain spots till the posts and beam could be cut, leveled, built and secured.

The header bolted to the house.

The table saw

The radial slider chop saw

The support structure is one of only two methods approved under the Edmonton City building codes.  The soil has been undisturbed for well over 20 years.  The blocks on concrete pads is ideal for this build up.

The view from the inside the kitchen

Day two (Thursday) was true to the weather girl's prediction.  It rained.  So, no deck work!  One of my sisters, Paulette, was in Edmonton visiting with her daughter Karen.  I drove to Karen's home in the morning.  Following a good visit, I drove to a rental home to check out the re-roofing project that had been started on Wednesday.  The rain kept that crew away too.

Photo taken on the sunny Wednesday morning when the new roofing materials were placed on the roof. By the end of the day, a good part of the existing shingles had been removed and the new materials - with underlay membrane - was completed on the west and north side of the roof.

A view of the partial work completed seen between rains on Thursday morning.

Back from checking out the roof project, I returned to Deni/Courtney's home and called my nephew Brad.  He was mere minutes from where I was; returning from a meeting with a client.  He was craving lunch so he stopped by Deni/Courtney's home to pick me up.

Brad having some face time with Owen before we left the house.

Brad and I enjoyed a couple of hours over lunch; got caught up on the news and views; discussed his family's summer plans and, most importantly, made some loose plans for a joint motorcycle ride in the south west coastal areas of British Columbia and Washington State.

Back at Deni/Courtney's home, I drove off in my truck to collect Paulette, Karen and Jarred (Karen's son) who was back from school.  It was a short, 10 minute drive to Karen's Edmonton home.

My sister, Paulette, enjoying a nice time with Owen

Back at Deni/Courtney's home, we settled in to our visit while dinner preparations were well underway.

Courtney and Deni on the food detail.

L-R   Karen, Jarred, Paulette and Owen.

The barbecued chicken thighs, along with the other plates, were thoroughly enjoyed.  Our visit lasted well past 9:30 pm.  Jarred was writing his first of several year end school exams today (Friday) so I drove them back to Karen's home in time for his regular bed time.  Being an 'A' student, Jarred was not concerned about having to study.  He is completing Grade 9, one week from today.

Back at Deni/Courtney's home, we called it a night and, once I post this blog, it's back to deck building for me.  The deck is being built to Edmonton City building codes and is covered by the renovation building permit that was obtained to make all of the home improvements to the house.  That permit closes at the end of June.  The home renovations are close to completion and with the deck finished, Deni can call for a final inspection.  That's the goal.

The Friday forecast calls for a dry day - intermittent clouds with sunny breaks - followed by several concurrent sunny days over the weened and into early next week.  That bodes well for completing the deck surface, building the hand rails and installing the step rails and steps. While I am working on the deck, Deni will spend the weekend completing the install of doors, casings and final baseboards.

If our work project is completed (as it should be) by Sunday evening, I plan to drive back home on Monday.

Enough said.  Owen is ready for some early morning play time and after that, I'm outdoors to build.

Thanks for dropping by.