Wonderful Weekend Adventures with the Father in Law

Over Mother's Day weekend, my girlfriend, her family and I decided to take on a project.

We were going to assess and repair the shabby old deck in our back yard.

The house we are living in belongs to my girlfriend's grandmother.  Because of this, we try to make minor patches and repairs to the house, to improve resale value (if it ever comes to that).  One major problem-spot is the deck.

A good shot of the old & the new

This 5' x 5' patch took about 6 hours to do.  Here's a breakdown:

• 1 hour of purchasing supplies
• 1.5 hours of installation
• 3.5 hours of arguing and fighting, thanks to dad-in-law

A lot of the argument is the condition of the deck, and how much to repair.  At the time, there was only one rotted-out hole on the deck.  The plan was to repair that one patch, and be done with it.

But then, as we walked on the deck, we noticed a lot of 'squishy spots.'  Some of them were so squishy, they quickly became more holes.

At the end of the day, we created more holes than we fixed.  Heh.

But 'dad-in-law' didn't want to worry about those just yet.  Initially, he didn't want to worry about the other spots of the deck at all.  When we were discussing what to do, and where to resurface, he flat out told the group that, if they went with my plan, he wasn't going to help at all.

My plan was to tear out half the deck, which was rotted or close to being completely rotted, and have 5 more feet of lawn.  It would be more work and more time, but less money to spend on wood, stain, sanding etc.

He complained that was too much work, and "those parts of the deck will be good for another 4 or 5 years.  The house will be sold by then, so it won't be our problem."

Wow, really?  That's kind of messed up.  I always believed that anything worth doing is worth doing right, but hey... you're the father-figure...

Oh, and even more messed up, because you know my girlfriend and I are the ones who are thinking of buying it...

In my plan, the deck would end at the awning.

After fights, meltdowns, and a lot of tension, we finished the patch we wanted to do today.  It looks a little weird as it is, but meh.

Only one problem...

We didn't go to the edge.  I'm not 100% sure why.  He didn't think it was needed.  Yet, there are two spots in that 3 feet of space that are going to give in soon.  5 more boards was all we needed....

At the end of the day, we spent about $160 to fix one spot and ruin 4 others.  This doesn't include the time and stress that went into the project.  Heh...

Remember that desk I'm going to build for my girlfriend?  I was planning on asking him for assistance, so I had an extra pair of hands on the project. After this weekend, that's not gonna happen.

Please Share it! :)