{The Deck} Progress

Holy Moly these guys move fast! After my dad, Doug and Pat got started, my dad left the boys to work while he continued working on Lily's Room. As I was able to sneak out and take photos, the boys got a ton of work done. In less than a week (just a few days actually), we went from the ugly before (just a set of broken concrete steps that were probably decades old) to the start of a beautiful deck. 

Below is a picture of Pat and Doug making sure the boards were nice and tight. They started on the end closest to the patio, which would be the side most people would see first, and worked their way back towards the fence that divides the back yard from Lily's Garden. 

As you can see from the photo below, they had some difficult cuts to make. The deck was, of course, square, meaning our house and the vinyl siding on the back porch weren't square. Notice that curved cut in the corner? And that sliver of wood that was then pushed flush into that tiny crack. That's some detail, boys and girls! 

Here's a close up of the crazy cut they did. The board then went flush, leaving no gap at all. And notice the pile of dirt in the top left corner? That's where the original concrete steps were.

Check out that nice deck! It's already making us brain storm possibilities and a large to do list for our back yard. It's been neglected as we tackled the inside of the house, the front yard, and Lily's Garden. Now that we have this wonderful space to enjoy, plus the furniture for the patio, and Lily's play yard, we need to work on the rest of the back yard. Oh, and that screen door needs painted like yesterday. And don't even get me started on the wood around the door and window. 

You can see from the photo below and above that we tried out one of our patio chairs (that actually goes with our table) to see how it fit. This is all pre-railing because there's a good drop off on both sides of the deck. 

The corner of where the wood deck matches our brick exterior and fence. The white bar on the brick was an original window sill but the window was shortened in length to fit above the counter tops. 

I can't wait until we start using this once the weather cooperates better! The dogs enjoy it and the shade the deck now provides on the patio underneath.