Building of a new deck

We had lots of people visiting to lend a hand during the renewal of the deck behind our house during the past weeks. Our old deck was constructed in 1996 by a colleague of Mary from the Casino Niagara, so after 30 years the wooden construction was showing its age. Mary wanted a composite deck this time, which is more durable. Shayd and Hilary came over from BC with Shayd coordinating the ordering of the required materials and then the construction activities. Joe, Marcy, Spencer and Wil came from Sarnia for a weekend and with Mark & Carly made a hard working crew.

Mark and I took down the old deck a weekend earlier leaving the frame which we felt was still in good enough shape. Shayd however decided to replace several of the old beams and then we extended the deck frame with new posts and placed black water protection materials on top of each beam.

Shayd gave young Wil some carpentry lessons by making the steps from the deck to the kitchen sliding doors. A team of eight then laid the top deck elements which is tedious work because small connection elements need to be placed in the grooves of two deck elements. 

Shayd showed his carpentry skills in making the stairs into the backyard resulting in a very professional looking end product. Ralph came over for two days of help with the stairs in between their bike trip in Holland and his next bike trip in Quebec. Afterwards came work on the closing in of the deck with siding. Tom came over to work on the railings (Tom and Karen became friends after Mary assisted them buying a house in Fonthill about 10 years ago when she was still doing her realtor work).

A first dinner on the new deck. As a last step the new pergola is being put together. Our work was interrupted today by severe thunder and rain, but we are almost there. Brooks was a little star with all out visitors including Joe & Marcy, Fiona and Macy...

A flash back photo of young Mary, Sue and Joe with their parental grandfather during one of his visits from Holland to the hobby farm where Mary & siblings grew up (Mary is holding their pony). 

Final photo of this post was sent to me by my old Fokker colleagues who had again a get-together in Zeeland where Teun, our manager from those days in the eighties, currently lives.