Not quite playing on a full deck yet!

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of working with my girlfriend’s stepfather “Pirate Jim” on a new deck for her house.
While she already had a small 8’X8’ deck, Jim decided that it was not big enough and offered, as long as he had some help to expand it.
I agreed several weeks ago to travel to Bemidji and give him a hand.
So Friday we constructed a frame, braced it up and attached it to the old deck. Within a few hours we had the legs in place, the decking on and railing on one side.
But the plan changed a couple of times from the original idea so we could not put the finishing touches on it until we spoke to the owner of the deck; Kim.
Originally we were going to add an 8’X8’ section on the west side of the deck but Kim had planted a garden there this summer so Jim and I both agreed that putting it on the east side would work. However, when we did that the deck came out past the east wall of the house and originally we were going to rail it all the way around.
When we went to put the leg on the north east corner we had a brainstorm... “Wouldn’t steps work well there?” we said to each other.
Well we decided to sit and think about it... and have a cool beverage on the newly built deck, until Kim came home.
She loved the idea so the next day Jim picked up a couple of stringers and a bit more wood and we completed the deck just in time to host the first bbq on the now 16’X8’ deck.
Thinking it was a perfect addition we quickly decided that we were not playing on a full deck yet.
Plans quickly came from Jim for an expansion in the spring. At least another 8’x8’ addition on the south side of the newly built deck. Then he suggested a sunshade roof or perhaps a screened in deck.
Throw in my suggestion for a hot tub, and perhaps next year we will be playing on a full deck, or maybe not!
–Until then,
Ken