We are currently in the middle of what we assumed was a small house project. We needed to replace a couple of rotten boards on our deck. It’s an 8’x 8’ deck that extends off the front porch. The area affected by rot kept expanding. There was a rotten post and a couple of bad joists. I thought it would be a quick Saturday afternoon job. It’s been three days, four trips to Home Depot, and the deck is completely deconstructed. We are essentially starting from scratch. Our house is over 100 years old and it’s in great shape for the shape that it’s in. The deck is only ten years old and it is completely worthless. I’m not trying to imply that all new things are worse than their older counterparts. Some new things are fantastic. But overall, they don’t make them like they used to.