Deck the Halls

 or haul the deck ? Yesterday, I took out the skill saw < you know that that is the name of the tool > b/c I have no skill w/ the beast.

Knowing that I have some lack of expertise w/ the ' arm and leg ' remover tool - I thought that I should practice.

I got the old deck boards and adjusted the blade height and went to cutting or not cutting. Lousy cut, in fact not a cut at all. 'Aha, I said this is the skill saw that I remember '. You see, some time ago, I needed to cut vinyl siding. The fast way is to turn the blade around and cut w/ the back of the teeth. The cuts are pretty smooth vs the grab and chip of the front side teeth.
Thus, I turned the blade around < that was another learning experience > and, yes great cutting.
I decided to chop off the weak or rotting ends of the deck boards that I'd removed.

I was left w/ 3 pieces of decking in not bad shape. I figured to re - use the old boards < if possible >. I cut the first new board - learning all the way w/ every step. First cut, left the board a little long. Skim off an 1/8 inch to fit the board. Second board was an old board, yep, skim off an 1/8 in again.
I know your thinking - next one is too short. Not ! The third board dropped in - perfectamundo < I must have made a mistake >. This    3 rd board was a re - used board.

All right. 2 new boards left to go and one hole to fill. I moved the shortest board to the edge to measure for length. I looked and said ' no way ' - I pushed the board and it fell into place - no cutting. "What " my mind is screaming - ' how ? ' it answers.

You have to know that the gap was 8 ft. The board was 96 in but you need some space to fit the board. B/c the new board isn't 96 " < thats the name >in fact, it was 95 and 5/8 inches - the perfect length.

Today, I screw in the boards w/ proper spacing. I stain the boards w/ the first coat of colour.

Yes. All went well w/ the screwing. A minor glitch but that got solved. And even had screws left over < as opposed to running out > I got to staining and all worked out. BTW, while blowing off the deck, I notice that the stain flakes were blowing off where the boards get exposed to the weather more < the stain isn't sticking well there > 

OK job done. Now, wait a week and re - stain the whole deck