I am writing this on Sunday, Feb 22. There is one pic. (But it’s not all that compelling.)
What a great weekend. Good weather rolled in Thursday, with warm temperatures and sunny skies. We had a day of rain Friday, but the sun came back and it’s been warm all the way through Sunday. I’ve been enjoying making myself dead tired looking for my “bike legs”. We have two SOCA parties. We had a Happy Hour on Friday. The good weather means lots of folks turned out. The food was pretty good. This evening, we have an international Pot Luck dinner. We also had a very special breakfast with Mark this morning. We went to a new restaurant near Mark’s apartment — Carma’s Café. Mark seems to be doing fine.
We’re having homeowner fun. With all the snow melt, the sump pump has been running a lot. I unplugged the main pump to test the backup. The backup doesn’t work. I haven’t decided what to do about that. We installed a new, high quality main pump when we moved in. I might decide to gamble for a while. I guess the moral of this story is, “If you don’t want to know your backup doesn’t work, don’t test it.”
Our other issue is with the deck. Because our house is on the “outer loop”, the ground drops away from our house in the back. We have a walk-out garden level (also known as a basement) and a nice deck on the main level. The way the condo rules are written, the deck belongs to Danita and me. Just because the association doesn’t own the deck doesn’t mean they don’t feel they have the right to restrict changes to the deck. So we have to maintain the deck, but we can’t change the deck without approval. I wouldn’t care too much about this if the deck were OK. (Did you notice the clever use of subjunctive case to create an aura of foreshadowing?) Our deck has two problems.
Decks are not supposed to be level. They are supposed to slant away from the house at 1/4″ per foot. This helps prevent water pooling. Unfortunately, carpenters like things to be square and didn’t think about water pooling. Our deck is perfectly level. Plenty of pooling is causing the floor boards to curl up.
These deck supports were properly prepped and painted less than 2 years ago.
The outside edge of the deck is supported by a massive horizontal beam and large vertical uprights. These are made of pressure treated lumber which easily survives the weather. But pressure treated lumber doesn’t look pretty, so the builder enclosed these with painted trim boards. Unfortunately, the massive horizontal beam is trimmed out on both sides and the bottom, which makes a pretty good water trough. Water collects in the trough, slowly drizzling down the vertical support uprights. Because of our building’s orientation, there is never any direct sunlight to help dry things out. The trim boards absorb this water, which is why paint won’t stick for more than a year. Poorly painted trim board looks ugly. The constant exposure to water can lead to problems that go beyond the cosmetic.
I’ve been talking to contractors to see what we can do. I’m doing my best to find changes that have a small impact on how the deck looks. It’s not going to be cheap. And I’m going to have to ask for approval from the Kendal 1 association. Then the SOCA association. then the Long Wood neighborhood association. It’s like rubbing salt in a wound. Three times.
Well the temperature is near 60 and there’s no chance of rain. It’s time for a ride, to work up my appetite for the Pot Luck dinner. I hope this finds everybody doing well.