See Amazing Video: Deck and Cottage are One!

It was the weekend before Thanksgiving. Cold and dry. Despite the 18-degree forecast for Saturday night, we decided to come up to work. A forest fire warning in place for Lookout Mountain after the dry summer and fall. Very dry air. Told Russ I needed to stay in a motel, which we did.

We got off to a late start Saturday in Atlanta. Needed to stop to get supplies at Lowe's before heading up. I was extremely skeptical of Russ's plan: jack up the deck that we built summer '07 til it is level with the cottage floor, then slide it along rails so that we'll have the little 16' x 24' cottage with a four-season screened in (or glassed in) porch. Hmmm. It was the sliding part I was wondering about. The deck is solid, 12' x 14'. How can you slide something like that? Answer? See below....

Here's the starting point: on Saturday, Russ put three stout planks perpendicular to the cottage on the piers he built to support the deck and bolted them in place.

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Three stout planks, bolted to piers;
note location of the deck, about 20'
from the cottage, right of picture.

To lift the deck to the level of the cottage, he started with four bottle jacks, those little orange things in the pictures below. He used jacks 1 and 2 to lift the deck on one side. As the side got higher, he put cinderblocks under to hold it. Eventually when the deck was at a dangerous angle, he crawled under to put jacks 3 and 4 further under the deck, toward the middle, so he could remove jacks 1 and 2 on the outside. This gave room for him to pry up the deck (more about the gigantic rockbar later!) and put a long board under it, with the plan of sliding the deck along til it was in place on the three stout planks shown before. I know... it sounds crazy!




Using the bottle jacks to lift up one side


tilting at a dangerous angle
Then he jacked up the other side. Things didn't go quite as well so the jacks ended up on the end rather than the side. Long story short, deck was up in the air on cinderblocks with long boards on each side, like extensions of the two outside stout planks. Are you with me?



Ready to push!
OK. Here comes the good part. Russ used the gigantic rockbar (it's like a crowbar but a lot bigger). Run the video.

Russ noted after the deck was against the house that he hadn't trimmed enough sheathing off. He move it back, did the trimming and we took this final picture:

Screen Porch Footers

The last two weekends, have been spent surveying, digging , and pouring nine footers for the new screen porch. Now that it is going to be more than a platform on which to erect our little screen canopy, I felt compelled to add support in the middle of the 12 foot span of 2 x 8s. This will give the floor the same sturdy feel of the rest of the cabin. Also good footers are necessary to support the half walls and metal roof planned for the addition.



I wanted to reinforce the footers and strengthen the front piers so I added a little rebar. Chuck showed me this trick. Drill a hole in a oak tree to make it easier to bend the rebar to shape. The tree I used died last fall so no harm was done to a living tree. Just remember, if you have more than 2 bends, start with the inner ones and work your way out. A length of pipe to use as a cheater is also helpful.

What Next?

The next piece of work is going to be to connect the previously fabricated deck to the cabin. We plan to elevate it to the same level as the rest of the cabin, cover it with metal roofing, and screen it in. This will make a very nice place to eat and sleep in nice weather. Also, a great 'mud room' for bad weather.

Using some salvaged PVC pipe for rollers, the deck has been moved far enough away to make room for laying the foundation. Hopefully, I will complete the concrete work before freezing weather arrives.

Once the deck is in position and fastened to the cabin, we will frame it in. After that, comes the roof framing for the entire structure.

I suppose I would be a lot further along now if I did not take time occasionally to smell the flowers, play with the bugs, ...



and do a little rappelling with my human friends.