A Deck and Then Some

I think the image below pretty much sums up our plans for some outdoor living space

It all started with our back deck. It was small, the steps were too tall for crippled old dogs and five of the six support posts had rotted off. We decided to tear it down and start fresh.

We wanted a large outdoor living space and composite decking is expensive. So we came up with the idea of a small deck that led down to a larger patio behind the garage. We would have space to bbq on the deck and still have room for a patio set and fireplace on the patio. A 12x18 patio would give us plenty of space, but the concrete delivery was free if we upped the order to four yards. So we decided to extend the pad in front of the deck to make room for a hot tub.

This bumped our outdoor living space from 96 sq ft to 412 sq ft, which seems huge at the moment.

The deck is 12'8" long, but the decking comes in 12' lengths so we put a picture frame around the perimeter to avoid having any seams.

It's not done yet, I still need to build a surround and we've decided to add railings, even though the deck is only 28" tall. Still, it looks much nicer than the old one ever did.

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Our New House - It Might Just Be Home

I recently announced that we had sold our home in Helena and will be moving to my hometown in July. We did some house-hunting over Easter weekend and I'm please to report success. We are in the process of buying our latest home: I know you can't see it well behind the trees. I'm so excited to have actual trees on the property. The house itself is nestled against the base of a hill which will block our views of the sunset but the east-facing front porch should offer some wonderful sunrises. And here's a sneak peek of our view. I won't be posting any more photos until we've actually closed on the house. Closing is still two months away and a lot could change before then. Still, I look forward to sharing our latest project.

Sold

We sold our house last week. This may come as a surprise since the house wasn't even for sale. We weren't planning to move. Everything in the house was designed with the idea that we would be living here for years. But sometimes God makes it abundantly clear that He has other plans. In the course of just a few days Luke was offered a chance to move to his company branch in my hometown and we met a family looking for a house in our neighborhood. And now our house is under contract. Closing is scheduled for mid-July so I will have a little time to recover from having the baby, but until she arrives I've been packing up all our non-essentials. We have already started looking for our next home; maybe it will be a home we get to enjoy for decades. We'll just have to wait and see.

Repainted

It might not feel like we've accomplished all that much since buying the house last summer. What progress we have been able to make comes during naps and after the kiddo is down for the night. But despite having to work in nap-sized increments, we have been able to get quite a bit done. Take for example the house paint. The siding was rough shape. A few more years and we would not have been able to salvage it. Before - Rust colored stain needed a fresh coat years ago After-Paint provides much better protection for the brittle pine siding. Before After Garage Before - Original combed cedar siding was in terrible shape after years of mistreatment. Garage After - It looks better, but the siding needs to be replaced. The new paint will buy us some time until we're ready to tackle that project. Stable Before - Probably hadn't been painted in 20+ years. Stable After - It took 8 gallons of paint for a 16x30 structure. ...

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