The Deck

A few of you have inquired about the deck off of the back of the house. This is an example of how one project leads to another, to another, and another.

When we purchased the house this was just the roof to the mudroom. I'm assuming that at some point a previous owner intended to install a deck on the roof because the door was there. But when you stepped out you were greeted by a tin roof. No one is going to sit on a tin roof in the heat of summer... or even on a spring day.

When we had the house inspected we were warned that we probably had another 2 years on that roof. Here's today's lesson boys and girls; when someone tells you that you have 2 years on the life of a roof... it means less than a year. This is the second house I've had where I was told I had a good deal of time to deal with an roofing issue, only to have a major rain prove that the issue needed to be handled immediately. Within less than a year, the mudroom incurred water damage from a hard driving rain.

During this time, I'd met Alan and had been giving him small jobs to do. In one week, he worked inside the house while the central AC was being installed by another company and the roof to the mudroom was being installed by another. Alan expressed an interest in building the deck; sold. This was his first big job (big in scope for us, that is) for us. Since that time I've learned that he does whole house additions. He's good; really good.

Later in the year Alan and crew came back to demolish and rebuild the water damaged mudroom. I was so please with the work he'd done it began to bug me that I had this great looking little room off of the kitchen, a great little bathroom, but a horrid kitchen. Thus, the kitchen remodel. Of course there were other reasons, but the quality of the work Alan had done on these other jobs motivated me to hire him again to do the kitchen.

This deck is an unbelievable addition. It may look simple, but it's like having a fifth bedroom room. We really like to hang-out up there. It's also a great place to send the dogs when they want to go outside. Our yard isn't fully fenced in, so we can't just leave them out there. Therefore, we open up the back door at the top of the stairs and let them hang out out there. They actually stand at the door and wait for us to come and let them out. And as you can see from the picture below, they enjoy the space as much as we do.