Mowing 7 acres would take half a day at least. Unless you’re retired I wouldn’t consider it. 

27 minutes ago, NavyToad said:

Mowing 7 acres would take half a day at least. Unless you’re retired I wouldn’t consider it. 

But you get to drive a tractor that you don’t have to pay for! 

@TnRiver46 For what it’s worth my advice is to not skimp on the decking in terms of price. Unfortunately the old adage “you get what you pay for” is very real in decking materials. I built a deck on my wife and my first house 20 years ago and used at the time a premium deck board, sold the house 4 years later but still pass by it every once in awhile. As of 3 years ago the original decking was still there. Conversely I helped my FIL build his deck and although he used a premium brand he purchased the bottom of the line decking they offered to save some money, the manufacturer recommended 12” on center spacing for the joists but we went 16” on center against my wishes and I think you know the results. After baking in the sun for a few months it looked like the decking is waving at you and some spots you can really feel the sag stepping on the boards let alone the color fading quicker than I thought it would. Like premium fishing gear (which I don’t own ☹️) the saying “buy once cry once” definitely applies.

1 hour ago, Eric 26 said:

@TnRiver46 For what it’s worth my advice is to not skimp on the decking in terms of price. Unfortunately the old adage “you get what you pay for” is very real in decking materials. I built a deck on my wife and my first house 20 years ago and used at the time a premium deck board, sold the house 4 years later but still pass by it every once in awhile. As of 3 years ago the original decking was still there. Conversely I helped my FIL build his deck and although he used a premium brand he purchased the bottom of the line decking they offered to save some money, the manufacturer recommended 12” on center spacing for the joists but we went 16” on center against my wishes and I think you know the results. After baking in the sun for a few months it looked like the decking is waving at you and some spots you can really feel the sag stepping on the boards let alone the color fading quicker than I thought it would. Like premium fishing gear (which I don’t own ☹️) the saying “buy once cry once” definitely applies.

Thanks! Yeah the big joists are closer than code, guess I need to just get some premium composite boards and call some buddies . 
 

is trex the way to go? I didn’t realize there were multiple options for composite 

@TnRiver46 In my opinion Trex is the longest running composite decking company for a reason with a close second being Timber Tech. I know there are more available but these 2 have been around the longest. For what it’s worth the deck I built on my previous house I used Timber Tech. On the tube there is a channel by the name “the ultimate deck shop” can’t say I watched the videos but they have quite a few to watch which may help also.

54 minutes ago, Eric 26 said:

@TnRiver46 In my opinion Trex is the longest running composite decking company for a reason with a close second being Timber Tech. I know there are more available but these 2 have been around the longest. For what it’s worth the deck I built on my previous house I used Timber Tech. On the tube there is a channel by the name “the ultimate deck shop” can’t say I watched the videos but they have quite a few to watch which may help also.

Thanks!!!

When I was 10 years old or so my dad and uncle almost bought a lot on my second favorite lake. 
When we went to look at it , we were lost in the woods for several hours trying to find the lake. There were countless dirt roads like a maze in there. This was way before gps days. They had a road map but it didn’t show any dirt roads. We finally found it and I remember standing there listening to them discuss the pros and cons, with me hoping they would buy it , of course.

I remember us making a second trip there again and only being lost for about half the time as the first. 

They did not get the lot, or I would likely be living there now.