working on the patio or how we are way over our head!

Spring is here and it is time to tackle some hard work, or so we thought when we started Saturday morning. By mid-afternoon, we started to second guessed ourselves! Why? Because of this:

This is what your deck looks like now, yep feeling quite overwhelmed! But let's go back in time to see when it all started Here what the deck/backyard allegedly looked like when we bought the house:

We moved in just after a huge snowstorm (by DC standard),

and this is what it looked like:

(about 3 years ago)

Pretty rapidly we realized that part of the deck was in rough shape,

and getting dangerous, we even started replacing some boards,

but this was not the solution we were looking for.

So we looked for various options and decided to get a concrete plus stone patio installed.

Since it is a major investment, we found that one way to cut cost what to do the demo ourselves.

so we started! 

It was a family event, everybody helped, some have just more force or tools to work with.

More than half of the wood is rotten, so we decided to just cut the deck,

instead of just taking it apart.

I saved the benches, the wood there is actual OK and I have plans to reuse it.

After removing about 1/3 of the deck, we were surprised to find some concrete under the footing,

they are huge squares, about 4 feet by 4 feet, and about 6 inches deep.

These concrete squares are not level and are lower toward the house,

we always thought that we had a grade problem and that the water was going toward the house,

well at least we know why now!

That would probably explain also why it felt like the deck was harboring mosquitoes,

it was dark, warm and humid under there, perfect breeding conditions!

Do you see the chair there?

Somehow there is a hole there, huge hole,

and interestingly we have a problem in the basement just at the same place....

coincidence or connection?!

Now the real question is does this concrete need to be removed? or can our contractor work with it? it is quite low toward the house... I am just concerned this is going to be more expensive and our budget has very little wiggle room! At least we have some more time to remove the rest of the deck, our bodies have the rest of the week to recover! Happy whatever-you-are-doing day! Follow my blog with Bloglovin