Edging toward the finish line

With the rail supports bolted into place I was getting antsy to have a more finished look to the edges of the deck--there's no real rush to give the ends a haircut, but it represents an important step psychologically.

Once you've determined the best line (depends on the clearance from the rim joist, and also on whether there's a short deck board that dictates where the line has to go), it's time for the moment of truth.  I tend to measure, mark, re-examine, adjust, and re-examine, and then wait until morning for the actual cut.  This is a situation where "making loud mistakes" is a decidedly bad thing, but then you just breathe and go with the flow.

This light isn't great but that sun-lit rim joist is pressure-treated (greenish) and it begs to be covered with a fascia board.  Since it's already a double joist, I opted to cover it with 1x8 redwood that I ran through the planer a couple of times.

I'm not a big fan of miter joints, but this worked well--it's neat enough to pass muster even as it is low enough (from the stairs) to be very visible.  I'll add more screws and hope things don't buckle as they dry.

As I did on the decklet, I wanted to avoid having end-grain be the first thing you see as you climb the stairs, so I added a breadboard that had to be notched for the top stair posts.  This turned out to be more time-consuming and persnickety than I wanted it to be, and as it turns out, I'll probably re-do it with a wider board to cover the fascia below it.  Problem is, I need to find a high quality (fine grained) piece of wood, for durability and looks, and I am running short of really good material salvaged from the old boards from either project.



As you can probably tell from the light, I put in some loooong days working on the punchlist, but the results are very cool.