Ready for joists (and rain)

Today was a hard-working day! I'm wiped out as I write but I'm so happy about the progress, I wanted to say something about it.

It's hard to tell in the photo but up against the house is a board. This is usually called the ledger board and is an integral part of the deck. In my case, however, because of the way my house was built, I didn't want to attach the ledger board to the house. I am instead using a board attached to the inside posts in that capacity. Still, I had to have a board up against the house to give support to the flooring so I spent a lot of time today figuring out how to make that board secure. I cut 4x4s to support the board and secured it in as many places as I could.

I also had to repair the siding under the door. I will use flashing to protect that in the future from water splashing on it which is what caused it to get rotten.

I spent the rest of the day pretty much attaching the header joists (the boards on the perimeter of the posts) and making then level. I had to make up how I leveled them because none of the books made any sense to me on that part. I think it turned out good!

Alas, I think I didn't allow for the width of the header joists )the boards around the perimeter of the structure) so my measurements are a little long. I'll figure someting out. That's what the thinking chair is for!

It's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow -- maybe the rest of the week -- so I don't know what Kelly and I will get done on the porch tomorrow but we can always drink coffee and talk about the porch. That's almost as fun as building it.