ORC Spring 2020 – Week 5 & 6 – The Beam Dream Team

Week 6! We made some HUGE progress finally! Week 5 was canceled to raise more awareness for our BIPOC community. You can find helpful resources to support #blacklivesmatter on the ORC BLOG page for week 5.

Last week we laid the foundation for the deck. My husband secured a ledger board along with the house and anchored it into the cement. This will provide support for the cross beams of the deck. On the side by the fence, the beams will rest on an extra-long double-enforced beam that is mounted to posts coming from the holes we drilled.

Next, they hung the beams from the ledger board using joist hangers.

Once the large beam and frame were in place we realized we would need to trench under the beams further so they were not in contact with the ground. So back to digging we went.

After trenching under all the beams we laid down weed mat and secured it down with stakes.

Once the weed mat was in place we finished hanging all the cross beams.

We seriously had no clue what we were doing, so we are so thankful to a good friend of ours who has a lot more building experience, who was able to guide us along! These two together were a beam building dream team! 🙂

While the guys worked on the deck I worked on the exterior of the house so we can get it ready for painting. I primed the trim and worked on grout-washing the brick.

Another task I am super proud of was cutting and nailing in all the box trim for under our bay windows. I was super nervous about cutting so many 45 degree angles but since my husband was busy I just bit the bullet and did it myself! I only messed up one board and it actually turned out to be really easy! Horray for learning new skills!