Day 3 was the day we started what we came up for… rebuilding the decking.

Setting out and leveling was done the day before so the day started with a clean out of the stump holes which were dug well before the torrential rain last week and so were full of mud… and Charlton mud is red and sticky! Sole plates were tamped down, stumps cut to length and placed in holes and then backfilled ready for the bearers.

After laminating the timbers for the bearers and fixing them to the stumps I was finally able to start removing the star pickets which were holding up the verandah posts and fix the posts to the bearers.

One thing became obvious today… nothing is square in a 100 year old house which has been neglected, shifted when the stumps have rotted then shifted again when restumped, although if the truth be known it probably wasnt square in the first place!