Two days. Four planks. Eight bags of beach sand.

That’s all that stands between this very moment and completing the Tiki bar deck. Right now there are still remnants from my original idea of a “planks on ground” similar to what you see in the opening scene of Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon A Time In The West”, but those planks will be drilled and nailed tomorrow. I’ve got folks who tell me I shouldn’t be using nails, but after my experience with deck screws I’m just not willing to put in the time. And if my deck falls apart in the next year, I’ll just go with Leone’s “Cattle Corner” train station opening motif!

The joints in my hands and arms ache, I’ve got a huge callous on my right hand, and my shoulders ache from all the repetitive motion of drilling and hammering. I knew all this manual labor was going to get to me sooner or later, and today was the day. But I got a lot done. The boardwalk on the house side of the Tiki bar is completely done, and I’ve got four boards on the front side that have to be cut back an inch before they are drilled and nailed in place.

The finishing touch is to take bags of beach sand, empty them on the planks, and then run the sand through all the openings between the planks and around the Tiki bar. I’m not looking for a tight fit with the sand, it’s more for appearance only. Between the light brown of the sand and the faux weathered gray stain chosen for the planks, it all looks beautiful, especially around the Tiki bar – you’d almost think you were somewhere on the Big Island or at a pirate bar on the Outer Banks. One final thing about the sand: like a one-putt, it sure covers up all the mistakes this rookie carpenter has made! And there have been many, let me tell you.

While it’s been an incredible amount of work – between my regular job and working on this until nearly dark I’ve never slept better in my life – it has been fun and I’ve learned a lot. Something tells me that some day I’m going to find out why screws are more preferable to nails, but for now it’s all OK and looking good.