The deck is (unofficially) DONE!!

So here it is! The deck is done!! Well, with the exception of a few deck boards still needing to be screwed down (we ran out of screws) and a few railing spindles (we ran out of spindles)... It looks great and I have to say, my husband is a fantastic carpenter!


Again, thanks to all of you who were kind enough to lend a helping hand. Your help was SO appreciated!! And thanks to everyone who came over for our scrap wood bonfire on Saturday. It was a lot of fun to hang out - and great that everyone was so willing to crawl through the window to get in and out of the house. Good times!!


Try to ignore the yard that we still need to clean up. Luckily the mess in the driveway and garage didn't come across in the pictures!!

This is our view of the yard now, from the Dining Room. You may recall that I was conflicted about the railing cutting off our view. We decided to go with aluminum spindles instead of cedar because they have a much smaller profile. We like it very much, and I am glad I can still see (most of ) my yard.

This is where we will put the grill. We plan to build in a couple of countertops for extra prep area on either side of the grill. The countertops were on my "must have" list. It will be so nice!!

This is where we will put a large table. We're hoping for seating for six or more. We were also hoping to get a good deal on some clearance patio furniture, but are now finding we may just be a little too late. Boo! Paying full price is NOT fun.

And finally, these are the windows to the Dining Room that need to be removed and replaced by the new three-panel patio door. Now THAT will be nice. No more climbing through the window! Although that is a funny little quirk of this project. Even the dogs have learned to go to the window to come in the house. Sara will stand out there and bark to come in, just like she does at the door!! She will enjoy basking in the sun by the doors when they are installed. That was one of their favorite passtimes in our other places that had patio doors. Ahhh... sounds nice, doesn't it??

Miss Lil'

Hey look! Lily and I wore the same outfit to kickball!

(We totally planned it.)

Congratulations, Brad & Kaisa Trevis!

This past weekend was the wedding of a good friend of mine from high school, Brad Trevis, and his new wife, Kaisa. It was a beautiful wedding, and an even more beautiful bride. Congrats to you both. We wish you a very long and happy life together!!

They also had a photo booth. As you can see... we had a lot of fun!!

Cheers!

Deck progress - Sorry, no photos yet.

So first, I just want to give props to Dave & Roger for helping Dustin with some deck work this weekend! Thanks a ton!

The deck project is coming along. The joists are all in place, the newel posts for the railing are all up, and Dustin finished the decking on the steps yesterday. So now it's just the decking on the main part of the deck, and the railings. Then it will be pretty much usable - except that we'll have to crawl in and out from the dining room window until the new door is installed! Ha!! In order to install the door, we'll have to move a heat supply and a couple of outlets... and add an outside light and outlet. In the process, we're also hoping it won't be too much trouble to add a couple of flood lights.

In any case, the deck is almost done! We are very excited about this! One small downfall is that, at one point this weekend, we were looking out the dining room windows and I realized that once the railing is up, we will lose the view of our back yard - almost completely. Which I suppose is not a huge loss, since it's not much of a yard to look at. It is just dissappointing, since the great big yard was one of the things that sold me on the house (among many other things), and I really do look out those windows a lot. And now instead of having a nice grassy area to soften the blow of the giant freeway noise wall - well, now it's just that big, brown, ugly wall. Luckily we have a great big walnut that rises far above the deck - even though it's only a matter of time before that tree keels over (really, any day now). Obviously there is no going back now, and I'll just have to get used to it. And I have resolved to get some nice planters that can be viewed from the inside of the railing. But the thing that gets me the most is not being able to see what's going on in the yard. The dogs, especially, and any possible tiny people we may one day have running around out there. But also any regular-sized people that may decide to lurk. I suppose that's another reason for the flood lights? Well, I will miss looking at my yard. I'll have to spend some time gazing out that window before the railing goes up.

And that's about it for now. Today is Dustin's birthday - the big 3-0! When I asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate, he said "I'd like to be able to work on the deck as much as possible all weekend." Not the most festive of celebrations, but he definitely was happy all weekend!! I'll post a picture tomorrow of his gift. I'm very excited about it!!

Have a nice day!