We've done quite a lot of work on our own, but some items have been well worth paying professionals to assist. One of those projects was the removal of a broken sliding glass door and its rotting frame in the back bedroom. Our window rep said that he could sell us some amazing french doors for less than what it would cost to remove the door and put the house back to its original state. Wouldn't that be easier? Well, maybe...but the bedrooms are very small and having a door on that wall made the room almost unusable as a bedroom. My mind was already made up: take out the door, fame the wall, put in an awning window.
The first step in this project was to remove the deck. The deck was poorly constructed, rotting, and badly designed. The railing was unnaturally tall (perhaps a giant lived here?) and the deck was fully closed off from the stairs. As a result, the deck was only accessible via the back bedroom. Once there, a person would either have to climb over or through the railing onto the steps or go back through the house in order to access the yard. Back through the house?? Nonsense!
Nick set to work with a hammer and crowbar. Together we made quick work of removing the old deck. On another day, he worked on the project alone and while yanking hard to get a long nail out, it suddenly gave way and he went flying off the side of the steps. He landed hard on a concrete walkway and injured his shoulder. It took months for him to get back to normal, poor guy.
Once the deck and stairs were removed, water intrusion mysteries were solved. If you look closely, you'll see that entire bricks are missing from under the door and mortar eroded from some of the bricks under the slider. The back door looked as though it had never been sealed, so we pinned up some plastic as a temporary fix while we ordered a new door.
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