The Schorr Thing: Backyard Remodel

Backyard Remodel Weekend #3 started out with a lot of energy. We knew we had some rain coming our way on Saturday so we were up early to get everything started. Once again, none of this would be possible without Sara's amazing engineer Dad who kept us level and on track with everything and for Mom who got down and dirty in the pit! Love you guys! (And I know Brian's parents wish they were closer so that they can join the fun :) OK maybe not on this project). Take a look at our progress...

Callie came back to monitor the wood pile

Already getting a little crazy

Our Foreman ready to supervise

First we started by remeasuring and laying out all of the angles and edges for the deck. This process took quite a bit to make sure that we were on it, but definitely one of the most important parts. We are using brackets to bolt in the 4x4's so we had to measure and lay them out before screwing them in.

First one in :)

Probably one of the best hand prints

Then we had to set the first post in to use as an anchor point so we could level up the rest of them.

Screwing in the first post

Then we went around using a long plastic tube and some water to level out the rest of the posts...it's an old Egyptian trick that Sara's Dad showed us how to use. Genius. Once we got the other posts set up it was time to test it out...

Ancient Egyptians...totally on it

We did a lot more measurements, screwing in posts, cutting posts....re-cutting posts (we forgot about the joists), screwing the posts in again, measuring, squaring things off, leveling, etc. And everyone got in on the action...our neighbor Mel came back and brought some tools and an extra set of hands.

Hard at work...still excited things were level :)

The weather started looking a little gloomy so we hustled to get the rest up before the storms rolled through.

Framed up just in time for the lightning and downpour to start

We did take advantage of the rain delay and went to the movies to relax...so nice to be in a dark cold room for awhile.

The next day we started out early again....I got some work done while everyone else jumped right back in. Here is what I came out to:

Not too shabby

We screwed in brackets (covering ourselves with mud) and got everything lined up and in place. The next step was laying out some of the boards and creating a frame design for the end piece.

First board down...looking good

Look at those beautiful 45* angles

Brian had to do a little championing for my framed edges but it's totally worth it! Of course, nothing can be easy and the boards aren't all exactly the same size and the back corner dips in a bit so we had to make some additions to the plans to get things so we could secure everything in.