Let me preface this by saying that if it wasn't for the vision and expertise of my father-in-law, Mark Stevenson, our new deck would be a complete and utter mess if it existed at all. I also have to give many thanks to my father and brother for driving in from Bowling Green and Bryan, Ohio respectively to help. It couldn't have been done without their efforts and I thank them profusely. That being said I posted some photos on Flickr that show the progress from mere posts to a completed deck.
It's one of those projects that start out as a pain in the ass and just goes downhill from there. First, I had very little sleep the night before and people started showing up way too early for a Saturday. Add to that a lack of coffee (or any caffeinated beverage for that matter) and you can imagine how the day was going to play out.
Let me just say that while my experiences with Home Depot are generally positive; they were really trying my patience that day. From mixing up our lumber order to having to wait an hour and a half to get a rental truck I was ready to just say to hell with this deck and go back to sleep.
Long story short, once we got back to the house with the supplies; building the deck went surprisingly fast and by the next day it was nearly complete. The only thing we didn't get to was the railing which my father-in-law took care of while Kathy and I were on vacation.
Now I have a beautiful deck overlooking the woods in my backyard. All that's left is to grab a beer, a chair, a good book and relax.