Freestyle Haiku

You're not done yet?

I'm not gonna lie to you, it isnt the first time ive felt the bitter sting of those harsh four words. In the past, i've replied with a number of well calculated retorts, ranging from "i just need five more minutes", to "i'll catch up with you later", to "maybe i'm just not that attracted to you". On a clever day, when a question makes me wince, i'll throw out a comeback that will hopefully make the question-asker wince back, or at least think about asking such a dumb question the next time... obviously i'm not done, or you wouldnt have to ask.

In the case of my deck, i dont really blame anyone for asking, its just getting tiresome. While i'm sure there are many sarcastic or clever answers to the question, i've decided to stick with the ol' tried and true, "nope".

I'm thinking from now on, i'm just going to tell people i'm building a helicopter landing pad. I couldnt find any definitive dimensions off google, but 28'x25' is definitely big enough to land a small helicopter on...

i dont have great photo-documentation of the progress, but i do have a few photos:

This was the only photo i could find on my computer of the original deck. it looks alright here, but it was in pretty nasty shape... and the garage roof was leaking in about 20 places so it had to come off.


After all the rotting black 2x4's were peeled off, and the nasty rotten 4x4's they were sitting on, there was the shitty tar, gravel and fibreboard to deal with. Whoever thought of tar and gravel as a roofing strategy, didnt think ahead to the clean up stage.

I was in a big hurry to get that gravel off the roof... but in hindight, the all gravel roof was kind of a cool look. if the deck doenst turn out, i'll miss the gravel.

here's the frame... turns out all the cross bracing was a little bit of overkill... live and learn. i'd do a lot of things different next time... but i'm not real sure i'll ever want to build a deck again after this.


It took a while, but i did finally get to start putting down deck boards.

You know, i thought i'd get checked out by a lot more good looking women during this project... i guess i could have been more forward whenever girls walked by... and in hindsight, i think i may have been playing too much sarah harmer while i was working...

"look anna. he's hot" (ok. the choice of wording might be wishful thinking)

"no use saying anything melissa... he's listening to sarah harmer, wearing a wife beater and camo pants... he's gay."

"hmmmnn... i guess youre right"

this last photo is where i'm at now... just starting the middle portion of the deck now. it may not exactly look like it, but im thinking its about 60% done in this photo. i'm not sure exactly how im supposed to go about this last part... so im just gonna start laying down deck boards and hope for the best.

i also build a devastatingly kick-ass wood bin out of some of the warped wood and scraps from the deck... so that i could put all the other waste wood from the deck in.

you might be thinking that my choice of descriptives might be a little over the top... but no. its not. at all. it is without-a-doubt, the best wood bin ever made. i'd include a photo, but no photo could do it justice... its sort of like an amusement park, in that you really have to experience it first hand and in person.

In the event that you want to feel like you're here building the deck with me (which would be strange, since noone came out to help except my dad), Sarah Harmer's Around the Corner is currently my favorite deck building song... the deck has also heard a lot of Audioslave, Dwight Yoakham, Waylong Jennings, Pearl Jam, Corb Lund, Cub Country, Ryan Adams, and Jets to Brazil.

Posted by Nickel on Monday, September 04, 2006 at 11:59 PM | Permalink