Two decks use low maintenance materials

Soon after the second story framing was underway, the master bedroom and roof decks were constructed. The master bedroom deck provides the cover for the main part of the ground floor patio. Access is from two french doors on the north side of the second floor master bedroom. In one corner, on the side towards the great room end of the house there will be a hot tub. We purchased the hot tub at the spring Home and Garden Show and its being stored by the dealer until we're ready for installation. This end of the deck was built with the beams closer together to handle the weight.

We, also, found the manufactured decking material at the home show. We're using a new color offered by TimberTech, tropical walnut, in their Earthwood Plank series. Its a dark brown, and with the wood graining, looks like real wood. This type of deck material is made from "reclaimed wood fibers and pure plastic resins." The advantage is that it doesn't deteriorate like real wood, never needing to be re-stained or sealed. I did have to fight to get the decking I wanted, because the material had already been ordered from Trex in the weathered gray we originally thought we were limited to. The supplier balked at getting what I wanted, even though they also carried the TimberTech brand. I went down in person and showed them the sample and made my case for wanting this new color. They made the effort to call the distributor and found they could get it with only a couple days delay. It ended up costing more, but its worth it. Its quite different in color than I originally thought we'd have, but the color looks really nice and goes much better with our rustic theme. So now I'm trying to decide where else to introduce a little bit of dark brown.

The roof level deck was also started at this time. They ran out of decking material so completion had to wait awhile. However, there were temporary stairs and plywood so we could go up to the top. This deck sits atop the roof over the kitchen, so that the
railing matches the roof peak over the second floor master bedroom. Access is from a stairway next to where the hot tub will be located. This deck is quite high off the ground and gives a great 360 view of the property and the foothills surrounding us. This
deck was one of Rob's special desires and it really has turned out cool. Because you can see the railing from the front of the house, many have commented that it looks like a widow's walk from the old sailing days. In our case we'll be looking at the nature around us instead of for a ship on the sea.