Does anyone else get this reference?
The fish in the tank from Finding Nemo? They nickname Nemo ‘Sharkbait’ and start chanting ‘Sharkbait! Hooo haha!’
No? Just me and myself?
Ok.
This is Brady by the way. And I’m here with an announcement.
We finished the deck at the lake!
We completed the main deck and the stairs a while back and ran into some issues with the permit because the building inspector didn’t want us to build a roof with out concrete footings dug into the ground.
Well we showed him!
Because he was replaced by someone else.
The new guy was much more accommodating to our desire for a roof and said as long as it’s freestanding and not attached to a building then we can build it resting on deck blocks. We got word that our application had been approved last Tuesday morning and by 1pm we were building already. It was good timing too because the older four kids were spending the first four days of the week at day camp so we were free of most of our daily responsibilities until the end of Thursday. 🤗
We started by cutting and prepping the posts and both beams and by the end of the day we had one beam standing. It was a bit risky because standing the first beam permanently pinned the existing camper awning to the camper making it unusable. But we were on our way!
And then it rained.
It really rained. Overnight. It poured close to 2 hours. All I could think about while it was raining was that we couldn’t use the old awning. And everything out side was getting soaked. Towels. Bathing suits. Shoes. Tools. Everything was soaked.
And we were motivated. 😂
A quick coffee by the fire and we were hard at it again. We managed to assemble and stand the second beam, level and plumb both beams, and cut all the joists by lunch.
I had realized though that I had used the wrong 2x6s at one point in building the deck and we no longer had enough materials to make all the joists out of. So over lunch we packed up the one kid left with us and headed to the closest lumber yard for more lumber.
That was a short trip full of sweetness (from Wavy) and delicious food (from McDonald’s) and we were back and working by 1:30.
We made quick work of sliding each joist into the hangers on the beams and shortly after they were all nailed in place and secure.
I maaaaay have found myself up on a ladder.
Dumb and Dumber anyone?
We finished off day 2 by prepping the battens. (2x4s laid perpendicular to the joists to which the roof panels are screwed down. I had to google the term. 😂) I wanted them to be notched to rest on top of the joists for both aesthetics and functionality. By notching them 1.5” over the joists, that left 2” of batten above the joists. That way the tops of the battens matched the tops of the beams at either end and the roof panels would sit flush all the way across.
Science.
Day 3 was a shorty because we had a much more important birthday to celebrate. I spent about an hour in the late afternoon making sure the whole structure was squared up and posts were plumb. I also added angle braces at the tops of the posts to add stability under precipitation load.
We had a pretty wicked hail storm that evening and we were counting ourselves lucky we hadn’t tried to get the roofing installed that day already. That coulda been bad news!
Day 4 was another shorter day because it was just so gol’ darn windy! We spent an hour or so in the afternoon sliding the battens in place and Hailey climbed up to screw them all down to the joists. It was pretty good looking at that point. 😍
And the structure didn’t look bad either. 😉
Day 5 was our last full day before going home and we were determined to get it done that day. And the kids were determined that they were bored and wanted to go to the ‘Ark Park’. A playground designed to look like Noah’s Ark which is just a bit too far to let them all go by themselves. So the morning was spent drinking coffee and watching the kids play. But the afternoon, hoooo boy, we decided to get back to work.
We had one 2×4 to screw in place which I had forgotten about. It’s purpose was added support for the roof panels along the front edge. Then we cut the polycarbonate tinted roof panels to length, laid them all up there to make sure everything lined up square and then started screwing them down.
Roughly 2 hours later we were done! Hailey put the last few screws in, I took the remaining temporary supports down and packed up the tools.
We’re incredibly happy with it! 🤗🎉 I highly recommend this for anyone who has a permanent camping spot. Protection from the rain, relief from the sun and I have to say it adds a homey, lakelife feel to our site. I feel more relaxed and slow moving as I exit the camper and step out onto the deck. 😊
Anyways, our deck is done and our campsite is another step closer to what we’ve been dreaming about all winter.
Hope you enjoyed the play by play!
Until next time…