Floor joists went in last night and decking began tonight…but we didn’t get very far. First of all, my power hungry radial arm saw did not like the outside 15amp power outlet. After tripping the breaker for the 3rd time I found a 20amp outlet in the kitchen and routed the thickest extension cord I could find through the kitchen window out to the patio…which thrilled Lisa, as you can imagine. Now that the saw could cut, we thought we were ready to go…until we went to install the first board.
Upon getting the first board in place, we learned that my nail gun doesn’t like 3″ nails, and tended to jam up every 2 or 3 nails. This is not the way to quickly complete a deck. So, fast thinking led us back to Home Depot to get deck screws and a new 18v screw gun, as my little 12v DeWalt just wasn’t going to cut it. However, that gave us two drills…one to screw, one to drill pilot holes so that we didn’t have to keep changing bits. And, seeing as it was getting late, we also picked up a set of work lights, which I have a feeling will come in real handy over the next few days/week. At least I got some new tools out of the deal.
So only 5 boards are done, but they’re also some of the longest ones…so in theory, it should get faster and faster, right? We shall see…
Well, any project that requires the addition of more tools, has to be a worthy one, right? Also, we’re right there “with you” feeling the pressure. GO TEAM!