The old decking has been removed. The joists have been demolished, and part of the skirt has been removed as well. I trimmed the lowest branches of the Oak tree and painted the cut ends. Today, the workers dismantled the cladding on the benches. They also cleaned up the overgrown flower beds around the old deck perimeter and dug up volunteer hackberries. They also regraded the dirt beneath the deck.
Now the deck is all but demolished except for the footings. The result looks like this.
The concrete was the original porch of this 1965 ranch. We built the deck over the old porch and extended it a good 15 feet beyond the perimeter of the concrete pad. It’s going to be another week before the deck is restored, I think.