Deck Deck Goose.

You remember that game when you were little? I remember that in elementary school I used to be so pumped when I got picked and would run as faaaast as I could to catch the other person.

Deck, deck, goose is not as fun. You don't want to get picked to do an entire deck project in a weekend. Buuuut that being said, when J is your husband and he gets picked, it sort of rocks. We took a trip to Home Depot, picked up all the wood and tools, and got to work.

Now, our deck has a solid base, since we used a power washer to get it nice and readied up. But the whole thing collapsed last year, and we had no walls or railings. J decided to attack the project head on. New railing, new stairs (so grandma doesn't fall through the cracks).

Here are most of our materials.... And we sure did make use of them. Here's a tip though- don't have your wife do math regarding how many posts you need before she has had any coffee on a Saturday morning, especially if she just dropped off your two crazy cats at the vet (AGAIN) and is on edge. She will end up only counting half the posts on the deck and you will have to go back to the depot (oops). Here is where we started out... or at least pretty close to the beginning.

I am no deck-builder, but I heard some not so nice words coming out when J was installing these posts.... They get carriage bolts in them... some bad ass huuuuge screws basically. They are not going anywhere. At all. Ever. So I had to help get these level plum  many times. It was the least I could do. I was also trying to plant flowers and sand and paint a mirror for our bedroom in between. We are the most ridiculous multi-taskers ever. I digress.

Here he is hard at work lining up everything. This job was more tedious than expected.... But I was good at one thing. I had to poke holes in every one of those small railing poles. Time consuming, but easy.

I got to use a sharp tool, which was handy when I got about 10 splinters and then removed them with the same said sharp tool. Good thing I've got a tetanus shot! We kept working...And then got some Wawa. J eats while he works- so dedicated he doesn't even take a full lunch break.

After this, we started really working. And we made some maaaajor progress. Here are some photos of how far we got!

MAJOR progress. I forgot to take pictures of the stair demolition. That was fun. Hello, sledgehammer.

So this is the progress thus far.... I think it will be 100% complete by mid week-- quite a fast project. And while J was doing this, I did take some time to lay down flowers in the front yard. Yay.

Pretty pretty! Can't wait to enjoy some time outdoors with our new deck and beautiful lawn this summer!

So here are the morals of the story, just to recap:
1. If you want something done, marry J. Oh wait, I already did. Marry someone really cool who knows how to do a lot of stuff and who likes to read (in case they don't know how, they can google it).

2. Wife + Math - Caffiene = Not good.

3. Flowers make things pretty.

4. Sometimes, a deadline can be a good thing. One week and counting. Wish us luck!