My weekends have been overly-busy with end of school year activities for my now 13 son, so I’ve had less time than usual to make stuff in the shop. I had expected to have time this past weekend to make the rest of the tool holders for my cabinet, but events conspired against me.
Coming home from work on Thursday I stepped on to the front deck and my foot went through. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, the deck is pretty weathered. So Sunday I thought I’d replace the broken board, but as I looked at it I could see the the joist it rested on was rotted. So, plan B, I’d sister a 2×6 on to that and replace the 12 boards that all attach there right at the top of the stairs.
I picked up some lumber, and as soon as I started removing decking boards I could see I was in trouble. That joist was completely rotted, it crumbled away into dust. Long story short, I had to splice in a new joist, replace all of the cross blocking and add some extra support members. Then I replaced the decking boards. In between I stepped on a board the had a nail sticking out. Right through my good tennis shoes and into my perfectly good foot. Ouch.
The deck is safe for the family now, although I have a few details left to attend to – my drill ran out of juice. But even better is the I had an email from the head of the local Society of American Period Furniture Makers that had the subject line “Weekend Project”. Perfect I thought, I need a quick, simple project. See what you think:
That could be a weekend project for me: every weekend for the rest of my life. 🙂 I renovated my front porch last summer. It started with a loose newel post. One thing led to another and the steps were ripped out along with most all of the hand railing; about 75% of it had to be re-built. It was a summer long project, which started with one board!
I can imagine. I plan to rip out the current deck — it’s a little ugly, but I don’t want to do that now. Or even this year. I think a little more work on a few areas on this deck and I can get another year out of it. Maybe two.
Short list of projects:
– Finish the last details on my tool cabinet
– Blacker house sconce v3 (smaller tenons, maybe slightly scaled up again so I don’t split out the mortises where that come close to the glass rebates)
– G&G style driveway gate
Please take a lot of photos of the arts and crafts stuff. I am reading a book on G and G right now. Cool stuff they designed. 🙂