Monday, June 15, 2009

Fitting in with our Piers

2009 marks the third summer that we have owned the Project Cottage. It is also the third summer that we have not installed a pier. It has never been a major source of concern, since we have been working on the house. We have access to our neighbors pier and have taken advantage of that access. While we have enjoyed the neighbor's pier, we have been feeling like we should put in our own. It would be one more step to becoming "Official Lake People".


The cottage came with three sections of pier. The sections were in pretty bad shape. I have been told by the neighbors, that the previous owners had not installed it for at least 6 years. The stringers were rotten on two of the sections, and the decking was weak and in some places, it was missing. If we were going to install the pier, it was going to take a construction project to do it properly.


I rebuilt the framed section of the first section (12 feet) and reapplied the original decking. I used short screws, so I could remove them easier when I added the new decking. We used the other two sections with plans of replacing them with new units in the near future. In the mean time, the pier provides us with an area of our own.




Trust me, it looks a lot better the darker it gets.