Main front and side deck boards cut - side view

March 6, 2013
190 views
View otterine's images

Before I can finish the front wall of windows, I need to work on The Deck. This is going to take some serious engineering. The deck will fit into the slope of the landscape and be only partially supported by firm ground around the building itself.

I'm going to do a bit of reverse engineering here since while the deck needs to be solid, it doesn't have to support actual weight other than a mini chaise or easel. I figured the simplest approach would be to build the surface of the main and side portions first and then create the framing that would support this surface. From there, I would create each leaf separately and attach those to the main deck.

I bought sheets of 1/16 thick basswood by Revell and will use walnut for the vein detailing and outer accent. The boards for the main front deck are 1/2" x 5" and there are 35 of them. For the side deck, the boards measure 1/2" x 3 1/2" and begin at the forward edge of the main deck. There are 37 of these. I continued them far past the door so there is room for the firewood box that will hold the wood stove switch. Plus, that means I can use scraps of landscaping materials instead of buying new.

With the leaf mockups in place, it's starting to look like something. There will be steps in the open area in front of the side deck. You can see the space between the top of the boards and the lower edge of the door. This will allow plenty of room for the framework, and I may or may not need a front step under the door. We shall see.