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2007 Dream Deck Contest Winners
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Discover the secrets to building the ultimate family deck
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By Allan Britnell
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Canadian Home Workshop Magazine's 2008 Dream Deck Contest Winners
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In David Hoare's previous career as the technical director of theatres in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, he was responsible for creating realistic but ultimately disposable sets. This time, though, the project was for real life, needed to last and, most significantly, had to meet the approval of a very important audience: his wife, Heather Jopling, and their seven-year-old daughter, Rissa.
In 2005, the family moved into a charming, red-brick, century home in downtown Cobourg, Ont., an historic Lake Ontario waterfront community about an hour east of Toronto. The well-treed property provided "a lovely shaded sanctuary…ideal for sitting and reading or, in the case of the children, running around playing wild imagination games."
There was only one problem: the backyard was in complete disrepair, particularly the existing deck. David describes it as "spongy, bouncy, rickety and basically falling apart." When he peered under it, he discovered that there were no proper support beams. Instead, butt-joined 2x4s barely held the structure off the ground. Given that it was the only exit from the house to the yard, something had to be done. So, the family decided to enter the 2007 Canadian Home Workshop Dream Deck Contest.
The self-described "highly dramatic" family - David now teaches high-school communications, Heather is an actor and author of children's books, and Rissa has been known to stage plays with neighbourhood pals - admit to spending "many afternoons wandering around the yard, waving hands about and imaging different scenarios."
Given their artistic backgrounds, they drew inspiration from classic amphitheatres, resulting in a deck with a curved face and tiered steps. Paper planning - which they dubbed "rehearsals" - soon gave way to Google's free 3D software, SketchUp.
"It's a great piece of software," David says, who also uses it as a teaching tool with his students. One helpful feature was the ability to import photos of their house into the plans. "It looks like the real scenery," he says.
It was believable enough for the judges to pick their plan as the winner of the Dream Deck Contest prize package, including Brite composite decking, a Broil King barbecue, a selection of Bosch power tools and Echo gas-powered garden equipment.
The triangular-shaped, 500-sq.-ft. deck's curved front presented one of many building challenges for the couple, whose only previous deck-building experience was a much smaller and less complex structure.
Click here to read more.
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