One of our disastrous first purchases was a used pier. We found it on Craigslist for $600. Seemed like a bargain. It was old, but it would give us a place to fish from. I wanted terribly to introduce my kids to the previously mentioned cannonballing and fishing…. We rented a U-Haul and off we went to pick up our Craigslist treasure. The upside was that the pier was disassembled and out of the water, SCORE. The downside was that each section probably weighed at least 100 lbs. We hadn’t anticipated that. We couldn’t drag the 100# sections, it would tear up the grass and I couldn’t lift more than one section without hurting myself. It took 3 people, but we managed to get it in the trailer and up to the lake house. Step 2, how do we set it up? Luckily, entrepreneurial neighborhood teenager has a business of jack of all trades. One of those skills was putting in piers. We called him and he appeared at our house with a couple of buddies, all lanky (over 6 foot) teenage boys. Much to our surprise, they hoisted those 100# sections over their heads and carried them down our rickety steps, over the dilapidated boathouse and to the water. Piece by piece they put the pier together.
Priced, at $600, I wasn’t expecting perfection. It was put together and wobbly. Wow, was it wobbly. It worked for a few years. We wobbled our way down to the boat with the cooler of provisions for a day on the water, tubes, floaties, various friends and family. Until one awful day when my husband went to make the jump from boat to pier and it wobbled as he landed. He fell over the side, onto the steel bars of the boat lift. Thankfully, one of our guests that day were able to get him out of the water and his wife (who’s a nurse) said he needed an ER. He had multiple broken ribs and as soon as he could move without wincing, we priced out a new dock.