Okay, so Chris’ infomercial career flamed out faster than a roman candle. Regardless, you can see her debut (and sadly, she told me, her infomercial swan song as well), at AcquaEssentials.com. Our good friend Javier Martinez from Madrid, Spain, was recently in Dallas to launch his company’s line of high-end spa products in the U.S.

So check out his web site and have a look at Chris’ contribution recorded at the AcquaEssentials launch party from a couple of weeks ago. The food was yummy, plus I got to sample something called “Mondariz Hydro Man Cream”. Anyway, check it out, and buy something!

~kp~

After more than a month, it is done. And it’s raining.

View 1.

View 2.

View 3.

The two benches were made out of leftover materials.

View from the living room.

~kp~

After a week in which we endured downtime having run out of wood, deck screws, and cable hardware, and in which our area saw a wave of thunderstorms packing winds in excess of seventy miles an hour pelt us with anywhere between six and eight inches of rain in less than a twenty-four hour period beginning 7 p.m. Wednesday evening, construction on the deck is finally finished.

Now it’s a matter of letting the wood dry out sufficiently enough in order for us to stain it.

The new deck clocks in almost exactly at 275 square feet, and makes us feel like we will really be able to spread out when everything is back in order.

Special thanks go out to our friend Mark, not only for providing the structural design, but for lending his expertise and sharing his wealth of knowledge over the course of this project.

View 1 - Day 14

View 2 - Day 14

View 3 - Day 14

One of my favorite features: rows of 2x2 cedar serve as deck skirting, which looks great and denies our dog (and other critters) access underneath the deck.

Handrail, steel cable, and turnbuckle detail.

This shot shows the deck cantilevered out over the edge of the flagstone wall. The stairway handrail (top right) was a sorely needed addition; the flagstone can be very slick when wet.

Done! Except for staining and sealing.

~kp~

A little shorter workday Saturday, but we still made good progress. The first seven rows or so of decking material are in place, and our three outside handrail posts, which until now had only been held in place by a couple of temporary screws, are permanently affixed with a pair of six-inch bolts driven through them. They aren’t going anywhere. Trust me.

And the transformer for our sprinkler control box, which had been laying on the damp ground underneath the old deck for God only knows how many years (who made that wildly unstable decision?), is now safe, hidden, and secure in an external outlet box mounted to one of our new joists.

With my vacation over and my return to work imminent, my contributions on the deck are mostly over until sanding, staining and sealing. I’d anticipate that all the construction will be wrapped up within the next two or three days by our handyman extraordinaire.

View 1 - Day 6.

View 2 - Day 6.

View 3 - Day 6.

This mess of spliced wiring and the transformer for our sprinkler system was uncovered during demolition, laying in the damp soil below our old deck.

Not anymore. For about twelve bucks a weather resistant junction box mounted to one of the new deck joists has us breathing easier.

Shown here is the ledger bolted to the foundation of the house just below the sill of the sliding glass doors. With much of the weight of the deck now transferred to the house via ten 2x8 joists, we saved ourselves the trouble of digging and pouring concrete for four more posts. Metal flashing and liberal use of caulk should keep water away.

This shot shows the two center beams (bottom), one of ten joists hung over it, and the decking layer on top. One of our six handrail posts is at the top right.

~kp~

Another long but solid day of progress on Friday. All ten of our joists are installed, our hand rail posts are in, level, and at the proper height, and the funky corner around the top of the flagstone steps is framed. We are essentially ready to begin putting down decking material.

View 1 - Day 5. It's starting to look like something.

View 2 - Day 5.

View 3 - Day 5.

~kp~

A productive day Thursday, nearly eleven hours from start to finish, but for the first time our efforts are taking shape, and we can now glimpse what will be when this project is finished.

The day began by attaching seven cedar posts, then installing four beams that span the width of the deck. It took us a while to get everything square, but we are now within about 3/16″ of being exactly square, not bad considering the foundation to which our ledger is attached isn’t true either, and looks like it bowed in a couple of places when it was poured thirty-eight years ago.

View 1 - Day 4. Four days in, the deck finally begins to take shape.

View 2 - Day 4. The beams are nearly finished, and the first three of ten joists are in.

View 3 - Day 4. With the deck now cantilevered out over the flagstone wall, it feels like it will be much larger than the old one.

~kp~

Yesterday was almost a total loss, as we waited for the 2nd straight day for our lumber to arrive. It finally showed up around four o’clock in the afternoon. Not much time for anything other than to haul it into the garage, and, for a few long pieces, the house, as evidenced in the photos below.

Tuesday was pretty humbling, as we endured what was pretty much a physical beating. We spent the day hammer-drilling into the foundation of our house to attach the ledger (so the house will now bear much of the weight of the deck, eliminating the need for four additional posts), drilling the soil for our post holes, moving dirt so the soil under the deck will drain properly, hauling 60-pound bags of concrete outside, and mixing and shoveling it into our seven post holes.

As a result, three days in and about all we have to show for our efforts is the site layout, our ledger attached, and our post holes dug and poured with concrete, J-bolts at the ready.

The house, by the way, smells amazing with all that cedar.

Day 3 - Home Depot finally shows up with our cedar, nearly two days late.

Day 3 - Our stockpile has arrived. Most of what we'll need is stored in the garage....

Day 3 - A few of the longest pieces, as long as twenty feet, had to be stashed in the front hallway overnight.

~kp~

It’s now June, and our remodeling efforts head outside to tackle the last large project for a while: rebuilding the old, rotted deck we inherited with a new one that will be better looking, uses better materials, and is better designed to withstand the effects of mother nature.

The main problem with the old deck, other than the fact that it was probably at least three decades old, was that although the posts were in concrete, the concrete was several inches underground. As a result, nearly all of the 19 wood posts were constantly exposed to moisture in the soil, which is why some them broke off easily during demolition. A couple of them were rotted up to 90% through at the soil level.

I didn’t bother taking any photos of the demolition, mostly because it was an unholy mess. Suffice to say that it took two full days of work over the course of two weekends, along with the much appreciated borrowing of pickup trucks from two friends to haul away three loads of debris.

For this project we’ve enlisted the help of a handyman friend who provided a nifty design along with his expertise. I am merely serving as his sous chef while I take a week of vacation to help out. A couple of days in, one thing is apparent: this would be nearly an impossible job for one person to do alone, no matter the experience. There is just too much lifting, positioning, mixing and pouring of concrete and so on for one person to do without nearly dropping dead.

The basic layout of the new deck is not much different than the old one. Handrails will replace the U-shaped bench that surrounded most of the perimeter facing the yard. And the old flagstone at the deck level, which was unsightly and a ridiculous trip hazard, has been removed.

The new deck will have a more contemporary look to complement the mid-century modern design of the townhouse. And we’ve chosen cedar to replace the untreated lumber of the old deck, which should be much more durable and is not as prone to warping as pressure-treated wood.

What you see below are photos of the old deck and a nice, but organized pile of dirt after a day and a half of work, taken during a rain delay. I’ll try to post updates at least every other day from here on out. Provided I have the energy left to pick up a camera, that is.

View 1 - Before demolition. Where we started. Note the drug-induced flagstone-wood border.

View 2 - Before demolition.

View 3 - Before demolition.

View 1 - Day 2. Taken during an hour-long rain delay the morning of Day 2. Note at this point five of seven new post holes are dug and ready for concrete.

View 2 - Day 2.

View 3 - Day 2.

~kp~

I wish I had a dollar for every time we’ve heard those words directed at us in the nearly five years since we rescued Lizzie, our eight year-old schnauzer/terrier mix, back in the summer of 2004. It happens all the time, sometimes more than once a day.

Lizzie.

Lizzie has a very unique appearance as far as dogs go. She definitely has the schnauzer face, but she is bigger than a miniature schnauzer, and her long, floppy ears and long tail belie her schnauzer ancestry. Not to mention her color, fawn, which I’ve never seen on any other dog. Sporting her stylish “sock,” a front paw that’s totally white, she is a real people magnet whenever she is out in public.

We’ve heard all kinds of guesses as to her lineage from people who give every indication they are in the know, in addition to some rather unusual guesses: a Portuguese Water Dog was particularly outlandish (and unfortunately, wrong).

Over the past year or two, we began hearing that DNA tests were becoming available to determine the breeds present in mixed-breed dogs. I believe there was a story aired on National Public Radio which gave the subject some notoriety. I thought I’d heard at one time or another that these tests involved drawing a blood sample, and cost from $100-$200. Not outlandish, but not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, either.

Within the past year especially, the notion of getting Lizzie’s DNA tested has been an idea that gradually gained steam with Chris. In the last couple of months, in fact, it gained momentum like a runaway truck on a steep grade. In Chris’ words, it became a morbid obsession.

So for Chris’ birthday this year, Lizzie bought her mom a BioPet DNA Breed Identification Kit. Quite the savvy shopper, Lizzie realized that for a little over fifty bucks, it’s now possible buy an at home DNA test kit for your dog.

BioPet Vet Lab, the company that markets the test, currently has about sixty-three breeds in their DNA database. Statistically, they claim this enables them to identify the ancestry of 92% of all dogs in the U.S. The question was, are Lizzie’s ancestors among those sixty+ and 92% numbers?

The test couldn’t be simpler: it involves taking saliva samples with the provided swabs, letting them dry for an hour, then placing them in the supplied envelope and dropping them in the mail. No muss, no fuss. No office visit, no blood drawn. Smart dog: our vet’s office is Lizzie’s own personal house of horrors.

Two weeks to the day after they were mailed, I was working from home and, as is customary, our mail was delivered around three o’clock in the afternoon. And there it was: a large envelope from BioPet Vet Lab.

I set it on the counter along with the other mail and went back to work. Looked at it, went back to work.

Looked at it again, went back to work.

After a little over two hours, I couldn’t stand it anymore; I caved spectacularly. Shortly after 5:00 p.m. I phoned Chris and asked her if I could open it and read her the results. Her response was music to my ears. “Yes!”

The results are really interesting. Not only can they detect the breeds that are present in a dog, they classify them within groups:

Level 1: Over 75% of the DNA is from the breed listed
Level 2: Each breed listed represents 37-74% of your dog’s DNA.
Level 3: Each breed listed represents 20-36% of your dog’s DNA.
Level 4: Each breed listed represents 10-19% of your dog’s DNA.
Level 5: Each breed listed represents less than10% of your dog’s DNA.

Not surprisingly, Lizzie is a card-carrying member of the mongrel’s club. She is:

Level 2 – Schnauzer
Level 5 – Scottish Terrier
Level 5 – Yorkshire Terrier

But I’ve saved the best for last. There is one breed that is a total shock. Neither Chris nor I would have guessed in a million years that Lizzie is also:

Level 3 – Dalmatian

It is shocking because she looks nothing like a dalmatian, but it does indeed explain her size, the floppy ears, long tail, the light brown spots on her white chest and belly, and her propensity for skin allergies.

The likes of Lizzie's forebearers, clockwise from top left: Schnauzer, Scottish Terrier, Yorkshire Terrier, Dalmatian.

From now on, when people ask what kind of dog Lizzie is, we can give the standard schnauzer/terrier/Heinz-57 response we’ve always given, or, if we’re so inclined, we can now give a one word response. And that word is schnaumatian.

~kp~

Our last post was some time ago, and during that time suffice to say that all the major issues have been resolved. Our appliances have been up and running for better than a week. Since the photos below were taken, the first floor has been tidied up, furniture uncovered and put back in place, and art hung back on the walls. What’s left are essentially a few small projects incumbent upon us for completion, caulking this, painting that, and so on.

For a few “Before” pictures, and to see where we were when this project began more than six weeks ago, click here.

As of right now, though, we are, for all intents and purposes…

Done.

Finished.

Fin.

Finito.

Geëindigdt.

The end.

View 1.

View 2.

View 3.

View from living room.

Island detail.

Cabinet and drawer pull detail.

~kp~