Deep-cleaning and sprucing are among the first projects folks tackle upon moving into a new house. While these rites of residential passage are enough to keep new homeowners busy for a while, one couple was particularly inspired to undertake a bigger challenge: building a deck from scratch. The final result? Put simply, it gets two thumbs up from us, but what really piqued our interest were the lessons they learned along the way.
The husband and wife team uploaded a slideshow to Reddit which chronicled their progress. But it wasn't all fun and games: Aside from overcoming some firsts (they had never used a jackhammer before!), the couple ran into some unexpected problems. For one, the husband explains that they "initially spent about $2000," but ended up dropping an extra $500 due to "numerous hardware store runs." In addition to these over-budget expenses, they were also forced to change their initial dimensions of the feature to meet their area's local building code.
With the enlisted help of the husband's stepdad and friend, they finished the cedar porch in one full day and three half-days. Not bad at all for an after-work DIY operation! Go on and flip through the slideshow below for a glimpse at their project.
Interested in working on a DIY project of your own? Before you start investigating this weekend's projects, here are a few that we recommend you avoid.
10 Projects You Shouldn't DIY
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