Decks ... we have 3 of them ...

We are very happy with the decks that we added to the project. There are a total of 3. One in the back (the play deck) which is just off the playroom and is about 500 sqft. The other is the utility deck (72 sqft), which will eventually have all the pool gear. The third, is the deck of the lanai at the back of the house (300 sqft) .

We have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them ... we love the decks ... hate what they cost us. This was definitely an example for me on managing a project. We had not planned on any decks in the fixed price, since we did not know what we wanted.

As the project took shape, we decided on what they should look like. I asked about the cost, the answer was "a couple of thousand" ... so I figured $2k, maybe $3k. The decks got built, they looked great ... took me about 4 weeks to get the "final" price ... when I did get it, we had a bit of a shock ... we are now the proud owners of $7k+ of decks ($8/sqft) ... wow, about 3 times what we expected. I'm not sure if they are expensive or cheap, just not what we expected.

So the lesson learned ... never do anything without a clear cost. Never assume ... always follow up , always get it in writing.

We will be staining the decks a darker color, but need Steve to flip some boards around ... some boards have the "labels" up, which the stain will not cover :(.

In the end, love the decks ... hate the cost and lesson.

Back to posting ... our new screens

Well, it's been a while since I posted, I'd like to say that I have a good reason for not updating, but unfortunately cannot. The reality is that I probably have been somewhat unhappy with the progress and the issues with been having and that has turned me off. Anyways, will post regardless :).

As the story goes, we had planned to be completed by Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas ... it's middle of January and I still think there is 4-6 weeks of work.

To be fair, a great deal of work has been done, and most of the major things are complete. Unfortunately, our "to be done" and "issues" list continues to grow. For every item we complete, we probably add 2. Will expand on this later.

The photos are of our new screens. Abuelo and I mounted these in the last week. They are powered mosquito screens. They come from up north and are very well built. Wasn't a huge problem installing them, with the exception that the columns that the tracks run on aren't plumb :( (part of the issues).

These are remote controlled, can be lowered or raised to any height. They seem to work great, and when down, don't really obstruct the view. We are very happy with our initial experience. The motors and rollers still need to be trimmed out, hopefully this will happen in the next 1-2 weeks.

Of the 6 rails that we installed, 3 needed to be shimmed. One was off by 1/2" over the height. The other 2 showed 3/4" differences from top to bottom. The ones with the 3/4" difference happened to be on the same screen ... means that the top was 1.5" bigger than the bottom. So, some shims, and a great deal of caulk (we should buy stock in this), and the problem should be resolved.

You can also see part of our new deck, for another post.