Handyman Dave

A lot of you have been asking what we have been up to lately because we haven't been blogging. Well, we've both been nesting. We've been doing odd jobs around the house that don't deserve blogging about because they are boring! I'm sorry we've been too boring to blog lately.

I will give you the lowdown on one of David's recent projects...When we moved in, our inspector told us we did not have flashing between our house and deck. It was one of the few things we used as bargaining power to lower the purchase price, knowing we would just take care of it ourselves. (We really need to resurface the entire deck because of splintering 17-yr.-old boards, but with the upcoming arrival, opted to take the more cost-effective/time-effective route for now. Resurfacing will come in the spring.)

So, flashing that would have cost $10 in 1992 and 5 minutes to attach to the house, now cost us $150 in boards and supplies to repair...not to mention the time, sweat and headaches it cost David. It's a good thing he took care of this too, because as you will see below, when he removed the decking boards, we could see that the siding that was sandwiched between the house and the deck joist had rotted and discinigrated! The job details are as follows: David disassembled the boards closest to the house, put 4x4's in under the deck as added support, put in the flashing, caulked, put down new boards, painted new trim boards, attached new trim boards and caulked some more. Thankfully, he finished just before tropical storm Fay lingered over Alabama, dumping some much needed rain. He's our hero. ;) Here's some pictures I captured of David on the job with his trusty assistant, Toby.

The gap where a board used to be.

Toby pretending to be paying attention.

The flashing is in!

And now we have boards up against the house that are a different color, and will be a different color when we finally replace the rest of the deck, BUT WE DON'T CARE! It's done and that's what we were concerned about. Way to go, Dave!

**Update** David caulked the trim the day that the monsoon called Fay rained on us for two days and he just realized the caulk never completely dried and mostly washed away. That's a job he gets to redo soon. :)