It's Done!

It needs a few little refinements...a bit of sanding here and there, but I'm sooo happy to have a deck I can walk on without tripping over splinters! And I'm glad not to have to worry about the builder having a heat stroke in my backyard during the hot weather that he had to work in everyday. It has moderated enough now, although it's still pretty hot during the day, that we are able to sit out there in the evenings. We even had our dinner out there last night. Nice!

Birthday Party.....early

My dear children and grandchildren gave me a surprise birthday party this past weekend and the photo shows my birthday gift from them all. What a perfect addition to our new deck (which isn't quite finished yet)! It was too dreadfully hot to go out and enjoy it while they were here, but there will be lots of good times around this table in the future, I am sure!
We had a grand time. They brought food and we had a wonderful crab and steak feast along with a prize winning chocolate pie from one daughter The other daughter brought a fabulous birthday cake that said "Happy 29th", (which of course is fudging my age a *few* years(decades, actually) and her husband brought steaks and grilled them perfectly for us! My son and his wife brought the crabs and his wife made us a lovely salad with tomatoes and basil topped with fresh mozzarella, yum. All the grandchildren were able to come and it was glorious having them all here together. My only challenge was to find bed-down room for everyone later, but we managed just fine! Wonderful, wonderful weekend.

Almost finished....

It would be finished if the weather hadn't gotten so very hot that our builder just couldn't work out there any longer. He hopes to finish it next week when we'll be maybe 10 degrees "cooler" (down from 100 today). I'm so glad I insisted on those steps!
They still need railings and there are a couple of other refinements to do, but we'll be able to use it this weekend when the children come, anyway...providing it isn't too awfully hot.

Balusters are up!

The flooring is all finished now, the balusters are installed and the steps are being built today, so the deck will be finished soon. By the weekend, I hope, because I've just learned that all my children and three grandchildren will be coming Saturday. Which means I have to find sleeping space for six or seven people...in addition to dear husband and me! (If all the immediate family was coming there would be 12 of us!) But we always have a good time when they come and they want to celebrate the new deck with us.

Wren House Update

No picture today, but I should mention that we finally took the wren house down. After numerous visits dragging sticks and other debris into the house the wrens finally abandoned the nest. We waited as long as we deemed necessary, but after no activity there for a couple of weeks, and after the work on the new deck got underway and still no activity, we took the house down. I put the hummingbird feeder on that hook. It had been hanging over the deck railing but of course that's gone now. So far I haven't seen a hummer near it, though. The other birds were wary at first when the deck work began, but they're pretty well used to it now and many will still come to the feeders while the work is going on. More come in the evenings after the builder leaves for the day.

New Deck!

After 18 years, (and it was built long before we moved here) we're having our deck rebuilt! That's the old foundation you can see in one picture, and it's still in great condition, so we just have to do the upper portion since we aren't changing the configuration much. It's going slowly, but I'm looking forward to having a deck that I can walk on without tripping over large splinters that are breaking away from the flooring and railings that aren't warped and pulling away from the posts. That dry patch in the grass you see is from the drought we've been having for the past few months. A young rabbit loves to dig out a little space in the dirt to lie in when it's shady there.