All Hands on Deck

When we moved in our upper deck was not very well supported. The whole weight of our deck rested on two 4x4 posts, one of which was bowing and twisting, so we haven't gotten any use of the deck off the kitchen since we've moved in. 

Our ultimate goal is to add stairs from the top deck, so reinforcement was a necessary first step. This weekend my dad and brother were kind enough to come over and help us do some work! Saturday we bought all the lumber we would need and figured out our plan of action. We had to tear up some of the deck in order to gain access to the existing concrete pads for the posts to rest on.

I didn't take any pictures during the process, but Sunday we got the new 4x6 posts up along with a massive beam that will now bear the weight of the deck.

We were able to use the existing concrete pads, which saved us some time and money, but left us with a not very symmetrical support system...oh well! 

The next step is to rip out the hot tub full of weeds! Hooray!