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 |
- 1 hour of purchasing supplies
- 1.5 hours of installation
- 3.5 hours of arguing and fighting, thanks to dad-in-law
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. |
Only one problem...
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.
18 witty retorts:
haha he sounds like a bit of a nightmare!
ended up great though.....now who's gonna help you on that desk?
It's all very productive stuff.
Well done you.
well it is quite evident where the good spot to have a seat is now. good job. looks better.
Sounds like you should have just told him to bugger off and done it the right way your self ;)
You're so motivated! I'm impressed with the crazy amount of perseverance it took to deconstruct, then of course exhaustive discussion and debate time, followed by reconstruction. Well done. I wish I were so handy Brandon.
Do the rest yourself, it will probably be quicker.
My ex father-in-law was (and still is) a certifiable loon, but a perfectionist about any project he undertakes. I learned early in that ill-fated marriage to avoid calling him in on ANYTHING unless I wanted it stripped to the ground and rebuilt like the Taj Mahal. The guy could spend a week replacing the screening on a shed door, and it would involve sanding and planing and twenty hours of hard ass labor... I'd slap the bitch together in an hour and find a cold beer.
Different strokes...
its always a pain dealing with family
Remind me to never buy a house from your father-in-law. Yeah, no offense, but he sounds like a major ass.
Too much!!
I can barely put together Ikea furniture with my in-laws... or anyone for that matter.
keep an eye out for some cheap(read free) lumber that's close to what you're using and fix the rest of the deck. Then stain it with a semisolid and it will look all about the same. then of course take pictures and give them to him...for spite of course. Tell him it was easy and stress free to do and only took you a couple hours ;)
He sounds uh... Lazy. Just a little.
Also try and consider that you may be considering to be the future buyers, but that's by no means a guarantee to him. But still... I'd be pretty pissed.
Well if you do decide to buy it, I guess you can always negotiate a lower price becasue of the poor condition of the deck...
Always hard working with family. These day I avoid it as much as possible
There is no way that deck would pass a home inspection and more money would have to be knocked off the price that would cost to fix it - trust me - my husband does home inspections.
And (I thought of this right after I hit the post button) if her homeowners insurance company ever saw it they would require it to be fixed or they would cancel the policy.
Building or even rebuilding a deck is hard work! Good luck with that and I hope everything works out for you! :)
We've been dealing with a similar scenario at my parent's house. The problem is that when the top board is rotted, there's a high probability that the supporting structure is, too. Ugh. Good luck.
Post a Comment
Comments are always appreciated. Sometimes they end up being better than the initial post! Come join in on the fun... (and remember, you can post anonymously)
And if you like the post, feel free to share! Stumble, Digg, Tweet, go bananas!