The New Deck - Almost Finished

I was hoping to finish the stair railing before posting.  It has rained nearly every day for what seems like two weeks.  Thankfully there was enough dry weather last weekend to catch up on outside chores, rake leaves and mow the grass.  I wish I had dug up the sweet potatoes then because now it's a quagmire.  At least there are no frosts in sight.

This has turned out to be a bigger project than expected.  Originally I planned to add on to the existing deck, but after seeing the abysmal work on that deck I had to tear the whole thing out and start over.  Thus began the destruction phase. 

Then there was the damaged siding that had to be matched.  Here is the clean slate, the tabula rosa for the new deck, with the footers in place (digging and pouring footers is a significant portion of the work).

The substructure of posts, beams, ledger board and perimeter joists was put up:

The joist framework was built in stages.

And the deck floorboards were installed on the finished sections.

Fast forward to now.  The flooring is finished.  The posts have been cut and beveled, the handrails built. 

The stairs at the end still need some handrails but that is a relatively minor project.  It just needs to stop raining.  That's a handrail from the old stairs, which coincidentally fit almost perfectly.

And the view is great.  This will be a great place to grill or watch birds.

Does something seem missing?  Why yes there are no spindles.  That job will have to wait until next spring.  The treated wood needs to weather before staining and it will be much much easier to stain without the spindles attached.  I will set the spindles on a rack and stain them individually, then after the deck has sufficient coats of stain attach the spindles. Then it will be finished.