Just loaded more photos of the deck
Every single thing we touch in the Linda Vista house turns into a challenge. First, we measured wrong and deck is 1/3 larger than I estimated. Then they decided they wanted to keep their gutters around the roof over the deck. So, I came up with a slightly complex design that raises the deck roof over the existing roof (see posts installed on roof). These posts are bolted and sealed on the overhang area so that there is no danger of any leaking into the house. I hope the bolts are sealed enough so water doesn’t get down under the shingles and into the plywood… rotting the plywood.
Then we purchased large 2 x 8 redwood for the top rails. They wanted the top rails to be beefy and wide for ‘hanging out’. Well, this means that the 2 x 8s have to be carefully cut to ‘wrap’ the posts. And then I came up with a crazy idea that we would cut a square out in the middle of the long pieces and drop it down over the posts so that the rail looks really nice running through the tall posts. We have to have the tall posts to hold up the roof.
OK… so the owner decides he wants the wood to be ‘clear’ instead of painted white. He had a vision that it would look just like the beautiful piece of black walnut we installed in the kitchen area. NOT!! So, I had to research and go to a special place and buy expensive marine varnish to try to protect the wood, UV protection and longevity. I kept warning him that it is going to be a maintenance nightmare because the rail gets heavy direct sunlight.
After putting on first coat of seal… it brought out the pink and yellow tones of the wood and looked horrible. I could not imagine putting pink and yellow wood rails onto our gorgeous greenish grey/white deck. He agreed. So now I am stuck with an issue that we have sealed the wood and cannot apply any stain to darken the redwood. I had to go out and find a product Polyshade that is a urethane with color in it. As we tried to apply it, the brush strokes and/or roller strokes just looked hokey and ‘fake’. We did the very best we could. At this point we have faux painted redwood.
We have no choice at this point but to install them. We cannot wait for several more days for stain/poly/varnish to dry on the lumber. Because the rails are dropped down over the open posts, the railings are holding up the build. We have our roof posts installed, and the ledger board. Our final step in finishing the deck is to install the ceiling joists. Ceiling joists cannot get installed until these railings are dropped down over the 4x4 white posts.
Never a dull moment. If we hate the stained redwood, I told him we will just lightly sand and paint them white (which is what I wanted to begin with!)
We found a separate circuit for the blower (2 island pendant lights that were removed and turned into cans; again, to have nothing hanging from the ceiling). I am getting rid of the two garbage disposals and the hot water dispenser. Eek. Who needs that? You can’t brew tea with it - that water had been in contact with metal for too long to make decent tea. So we will have 4 extra circuits. What can I install in the place of all that unneeded luxury?.. Me thinks - a second dishwasher!! 