Still Workin!

Hi everybody! I'm finally posting...I know, it's been a couple of days which is apparently too long for some people (eh Dean?). Before I get to the pictures I figured I'd fill you in on what we've been up to for the past few days.

Tuesday evening was spent finishing the gate and beginning to dig sod from the side of the house, where the deck is being built. Wednesday we had lumber delivered as soon as I got home from work, (thanks again Mark! lol), and Darcy, Kim and Rickey all arrived shortly after. The four of us and Mitchell carried all of it from the driveway to the backyard, and we continued working till dark. Darcy started building the bottom sections of the deck, while Kim and I dug up sod and started transplanting it along the fence where the lawn was massacred. Rickey helped out with both jobs back and forth as needed..we had a great little system going and got lots done! By the end of the night two bottom sections of deck were completed.

Today we woke up to RAIN..sucky! We figured the night would be a complete waste, and then the sun came out at about 6:30. Kim came up to help out, and unfortunately I wasn't much help at all! I'm so freakin' sore! Now I know that everyone is sore (Darcy!)..but I am just a whiner! So I did minimal work tonight, mostly held boards while Darcy leveled them. Kim brought many loads of crushed rock (which was dumped in our driveway), to our backyard. She created a nice little path that runs from the gate entry right down toward the firepit. It looks really nice! Thanks Kim! Darcy managed to put the next two sections of the deck-bottom on, so we're good to go for deck building this weekend..woo hoo! The weather is not supposed to be too bad, hopefully it will cooperate. Our door for the kitchen is on order, but won't be in till next week, so that'll be Monday's project. The deck is gonna come first after all.

Anyway, here's a few pictures I took tonight. This is the gate..a view from the driveway. I'm glad we decided to keep the gate relatively high, you still can't see too much into the backyard.This is an inside view of the gate, the picture is a little blurry, but you can still appreciate the fine craftsmanship! LOL

By the way, since the gate has been added our dogs can now run free in the backyard. It's great for us and them! Here's a quick video of the three of them running around for the first time...they are quite excited! Check it out right here!
Here's the bottom two sections of deck, Darcy is busy working away on section three. You can see the deck blocks on the grass, which gives an idea of how far out the deck will extend. It's going to measure 16ft by 20ft. We decided to build the deck low, for privacy reasons, and we'll just build steps down from the door onto the deck. We're putting a railing all around it..and pretty soon we'll have to buy patio furniture. I wanted to take a picture of the work that Kim and I did..I'll try to explain. All along the fence was crushed rock, it looked really gross! The first bit of grass closest to me in this picture is all transplanted sod, and the rest we covered with topsoil that we dug up from under the deck. I wish we didn't run out of sod, but we can always buy some grass seed!
Here's Darcy and Kim working away..while I'm running around taking pictures! I'm savin' myself for this weekend's work, honestly guys!
Darcy playing peek-a-boo!
Later in the evening, just before we were ready to come in for the night, we had the coolest sunset ever! I had already put the camera away, but decided to run in and take a few shots. Lots of really cool clouds, and the pictures are really neat! I couldn't resist adding in a couple of them...check out those colors! :)
And what would a sunset be without our bridge? Not the same! I tried to take this from the corner of the yard, and had to zoom in lots to avoid our neighbor's yard, so forgive me if it's a bit blurry. Wish I had a tripod!
So that's it for tonight folks! Time to hit the sack and get all rested up for this weekend's work. I can't wait to christen my firepit and sit on my patio with a nice cold beer! Cheers!

Liss