Deck is nearly finished. Here is what I did last year:

• April 2008: ripped apart the old deck
• July 2008: started building the new deck
• September 2008: surfaced the new deck
• October 2008: stairs, slide, railing

Over the winter I was worried about the weight of the snow on the new parts of the deck. I didn't have new columns on the inside of the deck extensions, so last weekend I fixed this with 2 newly-installed 6" x 6" columns. All 4 of the new columns are now clad in OSB to get them ready for stucco. And I had to break apart the stucco on the old existing columns so the wire mesh can be joined with the extensions. Last part was to build up the base of the new columns to match the general width & height of the old ones.

The stucco guy is supposed to come take another look on Tuesday May 5th to give me an updated estimate. Hopefully we can get the stucco done relatively quickly, and then officially declare this project finished!