All Decked Out...

This weekend saw the completion of one of the first semi-major remodels at Casa del G. This was a somewhat unplanned remodel, but one we knew was coming - our back deck needed new railings. Now, when we built the house, we cut a few corners in the interest of saving money. One of the areas was in the deck railings - we really wanted the plastic railings, but at the time of construction the plastic stuff was a) brand new and really expensive; and b) looked like it was made out of used PVC for the most part. We opted for untreated pine over pressure treated, with the idea that "someday" we would replace the pine with the plastic.

Well, someday came.

The railings had been in failing health for a couple of years - we've been losing post caps at a rate of one or two a year:

Rot is an ugly thing...

This past winter saw record snowfalls in our neck of the woods - at one point, the snow on the back porch actually came up over the railings. The weight of the snow, combined with prolonged exposure to a source of water, pushed the railings over the edge from "going" to "gone":

Rot, take two

We actually lost an entire section of railing when the snow melted:

Railing's gone, man

The section on the left actually saw the top part of the railing - and all of the balusters - fall over onto the lawn somewhere around March. One morning I just came down to get my morning coffee, and when I looked out the window there was a big gaping hole in the railing on the back deck. It was like my house was playing hockey...

So it was time to replace the railings. Not a huge deal; I could certainly have brought home a bunch of 2X4 pressure treated boards and rebuilt it in a weekend (or three...). We took a look at the prices and options for the plastic railings, though, and decided that it was time to add on the maintenance-free option we wanted from the beginning. Here's where it got interesting.

Apparently all of the contractors, handymen, and carpenters in the area have been ignoring the news of the slow economy, because the best we got out of a half-dozen calls was one site visit - and that was a friend of mine! We had a couple of contractors promise to stop by for an estimate and never show; we had a couple "friend of a friend" deals where our calls were never returned, and I was starting to think that I was going to have to bite the bullet and figure it out myself. Fortunately, Dad G. had a friend who was looking for side jobs, and he gave a price that couldn't be beat.

Inside of a week, we had this:

Even my house has rails!

I wish we had done this back in May, but we had other things on our plate at the time. As the summer wore on, we looked around to find someone to take on this project, and here it is Labor Day weekend and it's finally done. There's no sense in dragging the patio furniture out for a couple of weeks; however I fully intend to bring the camp table and four chairs out to have a handful of meals cooked on the grill and enjoyed on the deck.

It's nice to see a home improvement project both finished on time and on budget!

That is all.