First solo weekend since April

I had to keep rolling on the deck project this past weekend since this is taking way longer than anticipated. To my dismay, I had to stop at Menards on the way up to return lumber and buy more. My list included a few 16 ft 2x4s. However, my truck is way to small to handle that overhang, so I had to open my back window and slide them through to the cab. Here a live dash cam photo below.

Lumber in my face

After leaving work late and spending hours messing around at Menards, I finally caught the 9:30 pm ferry. So I didn't do anything on the island Friday night other than unload. Bright and early Saturday morning I started on the railing framing.

By early evening, I had finished the railing framing and it looked like this...

Sunday morning, I started on the balusters (spindles). I had to figure out how to space these properly. I built a jig using a few modified 2 x 4 scrap pieces. This created a block spacing template that I can use to hang the balusters perfect every time. By Sunday later afternoon, I had the back of the deck balusters finished.

Here is where I left off on Sunday evening before I headed to the ferry dock.

Long side view

Full frontal

Next steps:

• Finish balusters
• Install top railing cap
• Start on the stairs