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Yeah, there will be a 18'W x 15'D deck just off the back of the garage with a 42" door into the garage from it. This is where the hot tub will be. ;o). There will be a set of stairs leading from the lower deck to the upper one, which is over 9' off the ground because of the way the yard slopes to the back. This gives us a nice walk out basement which I love. Beats the heck out of trying to bring stuff in and out through bulkhead doors and stairs. The upper deck will be accessed from both a single door in the kitchen and a set of French doors in the den. That deck will be 24'W x 15'D, though the area outside the kitchen will only be 10'D because the breakfast area in the kitchen bumps out from the back of the house about 5'.

We're going to use Eon composite decking, that SirKit bought from eBay last year. This is the older, thicker stuff. When Home Despot made a deal with Eon to sell it in their stores, they talked Eon into making the newer stuff not so thick so they could sell it for a little less.

He's also engineering a different type of baluster system. Instead of the vertical balusters 3 or 4" apart, whatever the code says, he's going to use cable rail, and run it horizontally, 3" apart. He wants it to be almost invisible when you are looking through it to the back yard. We have a nice back yard with 200' of woods behind it, so it makes for a lovely view. He found the cable rail on eBay, too, and saved goo-gobs of money. The 'Cable Rail' system, if you buy it through the company, is about $75 a linear foot for the deck railing; WAY too spendy. So we can reproduce the look without all the cost involved.

This is one reason it's taking us so long to get the house remodeled. We're looking for ways to make it look like a pricey house without spending that much to get it that way! We're using quality materials, but obtaining them for much less than typical retail. It's an adventure, I tell ya!