Summer Project 2013

Earlier this summer when summer was fresh and exciting, we were working on various projects outside. Number one on our list was tearing out our old deck and replacing it with a smaller set of steps, we are calling temporary.  (Temporary in our world can mean anywhere from one hour to ten years.)  We know ourselves enough to understand that temporary needs to be good enough to last a while...just in case.  So our temporary steps are pretty nice if you ask me...of course, I also feel that way because Jay and I worked side-by-side on these steps.

Some day we would like to add a screened-in porch to the back of our house and we don't want to do anything back there right now that would interfere with that future plan.  (Future in our world can mean anywhere from one hour to twenty years.)

One Saturday in June, Jay and I worked all day long on these steps.  All day long.  It was a very long, hot and exhausting day.  And by the end of that day we were both completely spent...totally dead on our feet. We practically had to crawl in the house.  We kept laughing because we were so pitiful...and the next morning we were heading to Holiday World.  YIKES!  We must be getting old or something.  The sad part was even though we had worked hard all day, we were only halfway done!  It took a couple more half days to wrap it up.

Before deck stain

As you can see from the picture, all that area of dirt is where the old deck was, it was pretty big.  It took most of the summer, but we finally finished those temporary steps.  And after finding several excuses not to, I got two coats of deck stain on them.  Now, we need to get a couple sections of white siding to replace the areas that were ruined from the old deck...and a piece Lane wiped out with the tractor bucket. (Someone let the 9-year-old work the tractor and bucket on this project...)

We ordered up a load of rock to match the other landscaping rock and Jay has put it in line with the sidewalks to create walkways.  I found this simple idea on Pinterest for deck board steps that I plan to use on the rock paths to meet up with the concrete sidewalks already in place.  As I have found with Pinterest, often things that look simple...are not.  We shall see.  Then we're going to move the plants that I had in a little garden around the old deck and we'll sow some grass seed in the rest of the dirt areas.

Surprise tomato plant!

Funny thing, last year, I had a topsy-turvy with a cherry tomato plant hanging from a shepherd hook in that little flower garden by the old deck. I didn't remove the topsy-turvy and dead cherry tomato plant from the hook until early this spring.  (I know it's pitiful.)  Surprise! This spring, a very healthy volunteer cherry tomato plant popped up among the marigolds and has been thriving!  I think the marigolds have protected that plant from all the bugs and such because it is so healthy. I have been picking cherry tomatoes off that plant for weeks now and delivering them to Grandma Great, who eats them like candy.  The marigolds also come up volunteer.  They're not very orderly but they're thick.  I know when I relocate the rest of the plants, I will probably lose my little surprises.  Snap.

I can't wait until grass is growing thick in the dirt areas...that will complete the project...of course then we'll have to figure out how to mow it.  And we don't own a push mower.  Hmm...