FRONT DECK GONE

The deck at the front of the house, although it looked OK, was not built properly, with much of the wood touching the soil.  This problem was identified when we had the house inspected, prior to our purchase of the property.  From day 1, I knew it had to go, and yesterday was the day.

The first, and fatally flawed plan of action, was to dismantle the deck by hand, removing each and every screw.  The picture below shows a small area that was done in exactly that manner.  The only problem was that many of the screws simply would not come out, and the drill would just spin while it ruined the screw head.   The plan to save the wood wasn't working very well, so I went to Plan B.

Enter the orange painted machine, and suddenly, the deck with it's firmly implanted screws, was no match for the hydraulic monster!  I carefully got the backhoe behind the top deck, near the front door, and slowly pulled it away from the house.  I only lost a small part of a house trim board that can easily be replaced.  With the deck safely away from the house, I chained it to the tractor, and pulled it away from the front door.  Then, I changed the front bucket to the pallet forks, and picked up the smaller deck that was next to the front door, and moved it around to the back deck for it's temporary new home.  (see last picture)

At first, I thought there was no way that I would be able to pick up the big section with the forks, but after a couple of tries at getting exactly to the center of the deck, I was able to pick it up, and move it toward the front of the property.  The pictures below show the deck removed, and the area that will become a covered front patio, and walkway to the new garage.
 

I will be the first to admit that I've always wanted some acreage, and a tractor to play with.  Back in the 90's, we purchased 4 acres near Lake Don Pedro, with the intent to build a house, and develop the property.  That plan never materialized, and we ended up selling the property before we retired.  Improving this property will be a work in progress for quite some time, and this deck removal project would have been a back breaker without my newest, best friend, the orange monster!  Yea, I know, it's a feeble attempt to rationalize the $21,000 tractor purchase price, but, at my age, life is all about the "bucket list", and my orange friend is one more checkmark off the list.