deck solution and progress!

Ah, so while we didn't get the flooring going this week, we started putting up some siding and painting the ceiling. House is starting to look like a real home. We cleaned up the floor and vacuumed a bit as well - my wet-vac showed up and it's way better for cleaning the drywall crud and dust.

We figured out a solution for the deck. I also talked with Dominic Chu, the structural engineer, about what to do. We'll use 2x8's for the framing, and it's OK to cut some of the hold-downs in the concrete pads, as long as we leave 4 screw holes on each side of the 4x4 posts. Actually, since we measured and leveled all 4 pads, it's only the pad closest to the driveway that needs to be cut off a lot -the rest just need 1/2" to 1" max. This will allow us to use the 4x8 beam as a foundation beam across the pads and rest the 2x8 joists on top of it.

We will also change the steps slightly, so that the concrete pad will now be the first step. This will keep the wood off the dirt which is great, plus we're doing the standard 7 to 8 inch rise so we only need 3 steps!