Moving Right Along

Our deck has been finished for two weeks. This weekend, I got all my planters planted, and got some new cushions for my old patio furniture (which we're keeping for a while anyway, even though we got new fancy stuff last week). But! I had good intentions of pseudo live-blogging our deck building, so you'll have to wait for a little while longer for finished pictures.

Hank was very disturbed when the old deck was taken away:


You guys? Seriously. This is dumb. I am not amused.


This is what the foundations of a deck look like. It's a little hard to see, but there are a bunch of concrete footings in there, then landscaping paper and tons of gravel, to minimize under-deck weed growth. The precision with which they laid out that gravel was sort of impressive.


And here's the framing. Pretty cool, right? I really enjoyed watching this get laid out.

Here we have the decking laid out, and the posts for the rails. We sprang for Trex decking - from the Brasilia line, if you are curious - then the white stuff is just heavy-duty PVC. Trex is a PVC & wood composite material that is virtually maintenance-free. You just have to keep it clean. No staining, ever. Love it. We did treated pine for the railings (though the posts are cedar). The vertical surfaces don't get the same wear and tear from the weather as the horizontal surfaces, so you don't have to retreat them as frequently. Plus, painting some railings every two years or so isn't as daunting as the whole deck.

Coming soon: the finished deck!

Starting the Summer Off Right

When we bought our house, the deck was already beyond saving. Some people, who knew enough to build a deck, but not enough to really do it right, built this one. I don't think they used treated wood, they painted it at least once, but never touched it again. It even made Hank sad.


The previous owners were nice enough to leave us their really sweet picnic table, which Hank claimed as his own.


We used this shot for a Christmas card. It said "From our happy home to yours, Merry F'n Christmas." My mother didn't really approve, but I got some serious raves from others I sent it to. As soon as we moved in, Hank was up on that table, checking things out. He is only allowed on our couch - no bed, and obviously, he isn't allowed up on our kitchen table. I think he knew that the table was too crappy to be considered furniture.
Seriously, Why didn't that tree land on the damn deck? I can't complain too much, though, because the resulting repairs fixed a lot of things inside the house that we might not have ever touched.

But, back to the table. Even though Hank found value, it wasn't really usable. They left it, I think, because there is virtually no way to get rid of it. Even though garbage will pick up one large piece of furniture a week, they will not take a picnic table. We had some other work done in our yard, and we asked them to take the table. They said they would. They didn't. So, here it sat.
See the lovely deck? The quality craftsmanship? I know, I'm crazy for hating it.
I love this. I have no idea why this little square is cut-out and lowered. It just adds to the character of the deck. Yeah. "Character." Lovely stairs. Ugh.

But, now, we have this:Ah. It's like a breath of fresh air. No table. No rotting deck. Of course, we also can't use the door, but whatevs. It isn't exactly clean, but it is better than what was there. Although, I always thought the house looked kind of big from this angle, and now it looks so tiny. Our big, lovely sliding doors now look so small and lonely.

Today, they're pouring concrete and putting in the posts. They told me they'll start framing on Monday. Woo! Soon, it will be AWESOME. Then, I have to start working on Mr to let me get a new kitchen.

Me as Modern Art

Niobe had a link to this cool site that will make a faux-Mondrian image of you, based on your answers to several questions.

While I am far from a fan of modern art or design, I really like my Mondrian. We are getting a new deck soon (demo this week!) and I think I might use this as a bit of a guide in choosing my patio furniture.