All hands on deck

The guys say, "Taking it apart is the easy part," and they may be right. All I know is that I came home from church today, and saw this:


That was the original deck footprint -- all the way to the edge there, albeit with more boards. Staircase on the right. This is looking the other direction, from the top of the staircase. Notice how you can see all the neighbors' yards from the deck? Nice if you're into that, I suppose. Not the view I want with my morning tea.


Later, the deck has been reduced to its future depth -- just as deep as the landing needs to be. The staircase is doomed also.


My jobs were pulling nails and stacking lumber neatly. This week, I get to grade the new patio area and order gravel. If I work really fast, I'm going to start building new beds. I suppose weeding will have to fill in there somewhere; I've foolishly let waaaay too many foxtails go to seed. A shop vac, perhaps?

This is the "new" and diminished deck. The stairs will be moved to the left here, so you'll have to turn out the door to go down. That way, when we're on the patio, the staircase won't bisect the view of the garden, but sort of frame the sitting area. That pile of "old deck" is going to be "new gardens" at some point!


Eric said that he's spent many a Father's Day like this -- pulling nails, using saws, just generally working. We both have the sunburns to show for it. I'm excited at how quickly it seems to be going and how much fun it looks as though the new layout will be. The kids just want to rappel off of the edge of the deck. (Don't worry; there's caution tape up now and besides, we have the sort of children who could rappel or jump without danger.)