Summer of the Deck: Week 4

So far, I have seen lots of time go by and not much progress. I know all the details and time consuming stuff has to happen before you can pull out the hammer and nail (or drill and screws in our case), but I guess I was expecting this to go a bit faster. Max is enjoying the piles of wood that are still lying around.

Check out all that drool

Daddy taking a break to play

Let's back up a bit. We had planned to do the deck this summer earlier in the year. But then we decided we wanted to have Max's birthday party on this new deck. From D-Day, that gave JD exactly one month to get it all done. And 5 of those days were at Summer Spectacular and 5 more at camp. Nothing like a bit of pressure.

JD had more friends over to help drill into the brick and screw in the ledger board (the support the deck will screw into to give it stability). Here are a couple of pics of the beginning stages of framing the upper deck.

Lily helped move the mountains of dirt so the boards would fit level on/in the ground.

 JD would let Lily help. A lot. I was so proud of his patience with her. One afternoon she helped him drill in a good number of screws. She never complained and was a champ. I cannot tell you how thankful I am that he never shrugs her off and tells her not now. I need more of that.

Gotta love the red clay. 

Here is what we are looking at the end of week 4. Inspection on Monday.