Planning A New Deck Build: a house log

Ah, the “alley.” The affectionate name we gave that weird void of space created between the original part of our house (on the left) and the addition (to the right). We appreciate that they left that space (so we would not lose all those windows like we would have if they joined the structures instead of creating that alley), but it is kind of awkward.

It is right now home to an extremely short (and extremely worn) balcony overlooking a bunch of liriope, our AC unit, our oil tank, and the neighbor’s house.

It is fully useless to us. Unless of course we like the thrill of wondering when / if the wood is going to disintegrate beneath our feet.

A while back we came up with the idea to make it a walk out path (with steps that led down to a fairly paver-ed area with potted plants, etc… but then we realized that would not hold much function other than being a not-quite-functional space to park bikes and walk back and forth on since we already have the patio that we built on the other side of the house, which works better for that. So we went back to the drawing board and truly thought about function and something we’d in fact use and… came up with a deck for dining alfresco. I know looking at this photo (taken from the other end of the alley) that this space likely does not scream “put a deck here!” but it is located off of the hallway right next to the kitchen. Which is a much closer walk than to the patio, which involves a bunch of stairs while carrying plates and utensils and glasses.

Do not get us wrong. We enjoy using the patio, and we are out there nearly every day for more casual stuff, but we have in fact only eaten out there two times since it is not as convenient as using it for relaxing/reading/hanging out/rock-box-ing. So if we add a big deck with a dining table out here, and even someday build a pergola over it and hang some swagged string lights, we think we can turn a majorly odd negative into a pleasant charming and functional positive. Who would not want an outdoor dining space right off the kitchen?

The space is in fact wider than it looks at first (nearly 8 feet wide). Which makes it simply a smidge narrower than the whole den in our last house! Can you believe this room was only 8.5′ wide?

To assist visualize it, we worked up this little drawing in Photoshop. While it certainly will not become one of those giant party decks where the whole neighborhood is invited, it will comfortably fit a medium-ish sized outdoor dining set for family dinners and small gatherings (it’ll be much longer than most interior rooms at 17-21 feet long). This drawing is quite rough, but it’ll give you the idea:

Oh and you know how ugly the view of the oil tank and AC unit is from the sliding door now? You might wonder why we would not move those things to get them out of the view…

… but not only would that be a major pain (moving an oil-heat tank is a large deal involving the county) an elevated deck will in fact fully hide them from view since maintaining the height of the existing deck (which we will do, so there are not any major steps down since we prefer a seamless walk-out deck) means the deck floor (not the top of the railing, the actual floor) will be this high. Allow me to play the role of the deck.

See how it’ll block the ugly view even before we add the railing, which will further obscure that stuff? We are even toying with the idea of adding a built-in planter box instead of a traditional railing at the end of the deck- which will then be filled with greenery to further screen any unpleasant views (and provide some soft privacy from the neighbor’s house that is slightly visible through the woods).

The other reason we are so excited about filling out that space with a new deck is because we think it’ll assist make sense of our home’s shape. To see what we mean, here is a rough floor plan of our house before any work was done outside. I was trying to figure out how to best describe it is shape – it is like a quite squat letter T with a doohickey hanging off the bottom side (our bedroom). Perhaps it is like the number 4 flipped on its side?

Whatever description works for you – the point is that there were two areas of odd negative space. We already helped fill one of them by adding our fenced in patio last year. And now this deck will take care of the other empty sliver, giving our home’s footprint a bit more of a natural rectangular shape. See?

So now it is simply a matter of making sketches become reality. And unfortunately that reality involves getting a permit from our county, which we hope will not be too rough, but this process might not move as swiftly as we The house team typically like to since we will have to get that permit and have (and pass) two inspections throughout the process. But we thought it would be a strong little learning experience (we have never built a deck before!) and plan to share the whole step-by-step process with you folks in real time as we go. And of course we will break down the cost, how many hours it takes, and all that good stuff for you folks as well. In the meantime, we have put a call in to Miss Utility (to make sure there is nothing underground that’ll cause trouble if we start digging) and of course we have to clear the space of all those bushes/weeds/liriope while we work out a material list and a few sketches to apply for our permit. But we cannot wait to get this deck train moving.

Anyone else have plans – or dreams – of adding a new outdoor space around their place? Is it a deck? A patio? A pool? A gazebo? Or does anyone have any words of decking wisdom to offer? We’d enjoy to hear from anyone who has built a deck of their own (my dad has, and he said it is not too bad…).