This Is: A Deck

This is a deck.

This is new decking materials.

This is landscaping fabric and landscaping staples.

This is our new deck.

The condensed version of these projects always make it seem like things happened so fast, but they don't. A few weeks ago I ordered most of what I'd need to build the deck on Lowes.com, because I could think while I was buying and they'd have it all ready for me when I got there. Last Saturday, I started step one of the project: Demo Day! I only drew blood once, so I think it went well. The old deck was just cobbled together with old wood and was rotting out, so it's been on my to-do list for awhile.

Taking off the deck was the fastest step of day one. We had to dig up all the flowers and move some of them. Then we had to dig up some grass because we expanded the footprint of the deck.

We actually got rid of quite a few flowers, but that's because Gretchen wanted room for vegetables.

There were landscaping rocks under the deck, so I just left them because they actually did a pretty good job of keeping weeds out. Then I just tamped down the dirt in front of them.

We put down some landscaping fabric to really discourage weeds. I put a board over the old window well that came with an air conditioner in it because I didn't think I could get it out anyway.

I was actually surprised that we got to building on day one, but we did. We got the basic frame done before we petered out.

After a couple of more nights of work this week, we had a deck. Nothing else, but we had a deck that you could stand on.

I took advantage of the new space, and Gretchen's new chair.

Yesterday, we went to Lowe's to buy a few more supplies. Then, I spent more time than I was expecting to building a couple of ugly steps on the side and front of the deck.

After dinner, I put together a cedar frame because Gretchen wanted a more permanent space to grow some food. We have a few pepper plants, a couple of tomato plants and some herbs in there now. We'll see how they do. They should do well with all the new Miracle Grow dirt we tossed in there.

They should have more space to grow than the small pots we usually put on the patio.

A little bit of mulch around the whole thing and now I can sit back and enjoy.