Gas prices…Where will they go?

It’s funny, but I was thinking about gas prices today and what a joke they are for us. We have it easy considering in Europe some countries max out at $12 per gallon, but regardless it is becoming a joke. I keep wanting to think it is a conspiracy by OPEC to devastate the US economy, but after further thought that would be incredibly stupid because they make their money off of us. US stops using gas and OPEC goes broke.

Sorry for the tangent, but the prices are just annoying me. Seriously how do we not have new technology in place? Why are we so dependent? I think environmentalists and “let’s destroy the earth” people need to sit down and figure out how to make the most of what we have. I think both sides are a little crazy and need to be realistic and realize that we need bridge the gap between new technologies and our oil habit. It won’t happen tomorrow! Another tangent!

Any way I love this article because it makes so much sense. Cut the commuting time and save people money…I think more companies and governments need to think about this and the incredible side product is a happy work force.

Check this story out:

Workers shifting to 4-day week to save gasoline

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A couple of months ago I decided it was time to fix my deck. Not that there was anything wrong with the actual deck itself, it was structurally sound and I could have kept it the way it was. I just felt that it could also be updated immensely. I decided that it would be a fun project and I started it on Saturday, May 17th. 

I guess I should give you a little background on my thought process for the deck. I was originally going to do the composite wood railings with composite railings, but I had a slight problem. The deck is elevated 5 to 6 feet off the ground and I didn’t think it would look good to have composite on the floor and another wood covering the space below the deck. On top of that to use composite to cover the sides would have cost a ton and I was really trying to freshen the deck up and spend a reasonable amount of money not a ridiculous amount. Based on that, I ended up using pressure treated wood on the floor and still used the composite railings (they are composite on the inside and wrapped with a layer of vinyl on the outside. I decide to leave the lower part of the deck covered in the cedar siding and I will use a semi-transparent stain for the floor and deck sides.

Weekend 1:

I have always thought that demolition was the most fun and easiest part of any job, but boy was I wrong when it came to this deck. I started off with huge amount of confidence. The railings came down in about 15 minutes to a half hour. I was psyched thinking if it goes like this we’re talking only one weekend. Then I hit the brick wall. The floor boards were 2×3s and they were nailed in with the spiral hot galvanized nails. It took me almost the entire day to get the floor boards up. I should say that some of the time was spent removing the nails from the boards, because in my infinite intelligence I didn’t get a small dumpster so I have to take them to the dump and in order to operate outside I need to stack the wood (lesson learned).

Well, with the floor boards removed and the railings down it was time to finish off the demo by removing two joist and the rim joist. You see the deck had an angle on one corner and I wanted to get rid of it. That was easy enough, removed the joist but the new ones up and put up a new rim joist. I was ready to start putting the deck back together. First was to place the posts around the deck for the railing. That was easy I just attached them with some 6 inch bolts. I couldn’t put all the posts in because I was making the staircase wider. It used to be about 2 to 3 feet, but I wanted to make it 5 feet.

I felt like it would make the deck more appealing to have a wider staircase. I used 5 pre-cut stringer, which incidentlyworked pretty well. Given the setup of the deck I attached the stringers together with2×4s and them attached them to the deck with 3 inch screws as well as a metal bands. I don’t think they are going anywhere, at least I hope not. Once those were up I could put the rest of the posts up. Phase 1 of the deck was complete and I still had some time to get started on phase 2, the floor boards. Actually I only got 4 on before it was time to call it a weekend, but it was nice to see the deck starting to take shape.

Weekend 2:

It was memorial day weekend so I decided to take Friday off so I could finish off the deck in time for Monday. I got a late start because I had to make a couple of trips to Home Depot and the lumber yard. I needed to get the cedar siding from the lumber yard because Home Depot doesn’t carry cedar siding at least the long boards in a beveled edge. I got started in the early afternoon and completed the entire floor in about 4 hours. Not bad considering I predrilled every screw hole. Once the floor was complete I moved to doing the stairs. I knew I wouldn’t finish them but I wanted to at least get one step done.

On Saturday I got an early jump and I got the stairs done in few hours. What a difference from the original staircase, really made it much more appealing. Mind you it is not perfect since I used pre-cut stringer I needed to make the top stair about an inch taller then the others and the last stair is slightly wider because of the post molding at the bottom. Once I got done with the stairs I moved on to the siding.

The siding was interesting because I had never worked with it and specifically cedar siding. Man is it soft! I realized very quickly, on the first nail that pre-drilling isn’t something nice to have, but required. On top of that I had about a 32 degree angle to contend withon one side. Well it wasn’t perfect again, but it looks pretty good. It really finished off the deck nicely. Since most of the deck had the previous cedar siding on it, I didn’t have to do too much and was done relatively quickly. I then moved on to the railings. I used the Home Depot Veranda Railings which where quite sturdy as compared to vinyl railings and I am quite pleased with the feel. The first thing was getting the post sleeves on. That was a definite challenge. I am not sure if it was the posts that were completely warped or the sleeves were too small, but they were a pain to get on. I needed to use a wooden block and hammer them on. One was so bad that I split two sleeves before I essentially took a quarter of an inch off one of the sides. It finally went on and all the posts were done. The railings were bad once you got the first one done. I think the most important thing was making sure you measured perfectly and that the posts were 100% plumb. Mind you, mine were not perfectly plumb and you can tell by some gaps. The stairs were tricky, but in the end not all that bad.

Well I finished everything on Sunday, I even had enough time to pressure wash the patio and assemble the new patio furniture. All in all I think it came out rather well. Perfect, no, but then again this is not my daytime job, so I am satisfied and pleased when I sit back with a nice glass of wine and a roaring fire.

Here are a couple of pictire for you to see the progress:

I had a blog awhile back, creative in a tie, which was fun for the couple of weeks that I did it, but in the end I stopped writing. I don’t know why, I guess just got to caught up in other stuff. I decided to give it a go again, this time talking about everything. I am not limiting it to work, but just about everything and anything I can think of. Who knows where it goes or what it ends up being, but you got to be in it to win it. Looking forward to what comes of my musings.