For extra support Mace added some bracing under the deck. A small thing but you can never have too much stability on a large structure.
He also swapped out the small lights next to the slider for bigger ones that had better proportions. Ahhh, much better!! The screens also just went up on the slider so we can leave the doors open with no bugs!
The last big thing on the deck we had to do before the party was install the deck lighting, the cherry on top! When the railing posts were getting installed Mace had left enough space so he could fish the wires later. I know nothing about how to do the wiring and left all that fun stuff for Mace to figure out but in short we got “plug and play” lights that should be less splicing work to connect them all. Ultimately though he still had to do a lot of splicing. First up was deciding on the height we wanted the lights which actually was a lot of discussion; was it too high and didn’t cast enough light on the ground, was it too low and looked funny during the day, yada yada. Here we are in the decision making process.
Once we made our decision on the height it was time to get started. He measured them all out and made sure they were at the same height, wouldn’t want them to look like a wave on the railing! Mace got a special drill bit to drill out the hole in the posts. He had to make sure the hole was deep enough for the light socket and wires to sit in.
Next Mace had to fish the wires down the post to the underside of the deck. He had to remove the capsule behind the light because it wouldn’t fit through the post which is where a lot of the splicing came into play. The fishing also wasn’t straight forward and sometimes he had to drill a path for the wire to make it easier.
Here’s a shot of the “plug and play” piece under the deck, you can do 6 at one time. You can also see where Mace tacked up all the wires on the underside of the deck (he likes to keep things tidy!). He did this for 11 post lights and 14 stair lights.
All the wiring ties into Mace’s favorite thing about the lighting, the transformer!! Normally deck lights are own their circuit/power source and are solar powered or triggered to go on at dusk by themselves. Mace wanted to have ours hardwired so we were able to control them with a switch, which he installed weeks before.
The lighting really adds a nice touch and is something we’ve really enjoyed this year! Here are some finished pics. And after this we were ready to party on the deck!!
The very last detail (which we just did a few weeks ago and check out Mace’s new ring hardware!!) was adding the gate. We wanted to add this feature for when there are little ones running around in the future and then we won’t have to worry about the stairs and can still relax on the deck. It was the same process as installing the other railings and here’s the install process. We’ve talked about adding a light by the latch (we happen to have one more) and will probably do that one of these days. I guess that will be the last detail!
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