Backyard Overhaul {Deck Progress!}

When we first bought our home three years ago, I was excited that we would inherit what seemed to be a big new-ish deck!

But after some further investigation we realized that our deck, though new-ish was not built to last.

 We quickly referred to our “new-ish” deck as being our “old deck”, and to be frank, it just wasnt cutting it for us any more.

Not only was it void of all personality.

But it was a giant B-O-X, right off of our main level, which meant we lost out on a lot of our ground level backyard space.

Which would have been fine in theory, but our new-ish deck, kind of shook back and forth. 

And by “kind of” I mean that if you moved on it too much you felt like there were earth quakes happening.

I love a good rock on a boat or a sway in a hammock, but from my limited deck building experience, structures should not shake.

…and stairs should not be lopsided.

…and lets not even get to the part about children not being aloud to play under said rocking, swaying, lopsided deck.

#longestyetshortestsummerofmylife

#irony

 And, to top it off, this sad dilapidated deck was covering a very important window.

We also put on the list that it had to be a solid non-rocking, non-swaying, non-lopsided retreat.

We dug some holes.

Made a feeble attempt at creating some foliage/privacy against our back fence.

And got to work putting our footers into our yard.

As things go around here, we usually don’t start with a drawn out plan. We usually, just jump into a project with both feet first.

In this case, my more methodical man went to Home Depot and had them design us a handy little approximate blueprint of the deck we had discussed: two tier, smallish, discreet, and it had to fit into our modest budget. That, by the way, is great to have as a starting point.

We tweaked as we went.

#creativepeopleproblems

 …and then, with dreams in our head and power tools in our hands, in about five minutes, we tore the sucker down.

Don’t try this at home kids.

Our deck furniture took it easy this summer and basically sun tanned on our lawn for three months.

Our methodical man did not.

(The kids always end up choosing the best seats in the house.)

Slowly but surely, this guy of mine, clocked in after work hours, weekend hours, late night hours and more.

Sorry for the scary jarring saw noises neighbours!!!

Once the decks railings were removed, we installed the huge heavy posts that would eventually give us some privacy.

You should have seen my hubs biceps popping as he held these huge wooden babies up and I easily screwed them in underneath.

#teamwork

#uglyfacesweremadeinthebuildingofthisdeck

#therewasgruntingtoo

 The kids were impressed. Which says a lot.

One time, they didnt blink an eye when a guy tiperope walked across Niagara Falls.

Meanwhile, I was peeing my pants and blaming the mist.

  I remember the kids marveling that neither of us got killed in the process of installing those heavy puppies, and they were right to be astounded.

I am still sore.

Because I enjoy continuous momentum when it comes to projects, I encouraged my brother and dad to show up and offer some man power to my main man. The only problem is, when you don’t have a plan, extra help wont really make a difference.

Thanks Dad and Matt for coming over and watching us argue “ho and hum” about what steps to take next! Those four boards we got up in two hours are soooo level and straight, AND AWESOME, and I will carve your name in them one day in memory of the amazing teamwork you all displayed.

#Sometimesitdoesnttakeavillage

Since we live in a 15 year suburban development, mature trees are at a premium. We knew we wanted shade but also knew that we didn’t have the patience, the green thumb, or the budget to bring in mature trees into our yard.

Instead we installed a beautiful custom wooden system that would give us the privacy and shade that we craved. 

We made our upper deck out of five sections and added these wooden “blinds” totally around it, so that we can be out there in our pajamas with a morning coffee in hand and the neighbors wont have any idea that my favorite pair of pajama bottoms are actually my husbands thread-bare-ones and that they are covered in obnoxious happy faces which will never match my own morning face.

This whole process took a lot of days after work to complete.

We made it up as we went and there were more than a few times where my husband couldn’t continue building because I had to scour Pinterest to decide what I wanted for our dream, budget friendly, deck.

Lucky for me he is patient.

I never did find something that would work for our yard from Pinterest, but  I guess this labor of love will be unique to us in the end…

Though our yard is totally copying the amazon jungle right now.

My fingers and toes, and hairs, and feet, and legs and arms, are crossed tightly and hoping that in a few weeks I will be ready to show you the whole reveal with proper pictures and a source list. 

Until then, you will find me hiding out on that upper deck in my pajamas, with a morning caffeine fix in hand, covered in heaps of blankets to ward off the cold Fall air.

PS: fingers crossed the Canadian snow holds off till next month too! ;0