When the author bought a 10‑year‑old home, the back deck had been removed, leaving a 4‑foot drop that required the door to be permanently shut. After negotiating with the lender, the author drove a handyman to secure the door with heavy screws, added GFCI outlets, and cleared the way for a building permit. The house settled, but the deck stayed unfinished.

The author’s high‑school drafting class, which used mechanical pencils and vellum, taught him the fundamentals of technical drawing. Years later he revisited those skills in LibreCAD to sketch a 9‑sheet deck plan. The drawings detailed a 28‑by‑36‑foot footprint, a 42‑inch footing depth, and 6 by 6s instead of 4 by 4s for better load capacity. The plan added 20% more usable space.

During construction, the author swapped the drafted 16‑inch footings for 12‑inch ones, simplifying drilling with a standard auger. He also kept the joists in one continuous 20‑foot 2×10 beam, eliminating cuts that could weaken the deck. The railing and balusters were rendered in a side view, giving the finished deck a clean, modern look. The project closed with a structurally sound, code‑compliant deck.