Deck is done! Well. Almost.

 It's taken us two years.

Two years to finish the top portion of our deck. 

And it's beautiful. 

We used Trex(r) composite material for the decking. This way we don't have to stain it, sand it, etc. Very easy to maintain.

Railings are NOT Trex, it was just too expensive. So these railings are wood. Painted, assembled, then painted again before mounting. Post covers and caps are vinyl. 

I am in love with this deck. I'm so glad I pushed to have this deck.

There is nothing I hate more than an above ground pool just standing in a yard. With a gross ladder.

Sorry if that's what you've got going on, but it's just not for me.

We had that the first year. 

Not only was it ugly, it was super inconvenient.

Two years ago my kids were 3.5 and 6.

If they wanted to swim, someone had to go in the pool with them.

They'd want to swim for 20 minutes, then come out, then go back in, then get out.

It was exhausting.

Plus, the "safety" pull down thing on the ladder? Yeah, not gonna work for my little one. Ava scaled that on day one. Not safe. 

I realize this deck is huge. 

I wanted to make it a place where we can you know, hang out.

More than just a couple of us. 

And it's been wonderful.

I'm also really happy with our umbrella find. It was the end of the season and a color I don't love, but it was on sale for a really good price. It's also pretty big, bigger than many umbrellas I looked at and again, super grateful we made the decision to get one this size. It provides so much shade. Since our pool is located in an area of our yard that is FULL SUN, (literally nothing blocking the sun except clouds) we knew we needed shade of some type. It can be BRUTAL. 

This umbrella can be collapsed down and also "brought in" from the main unit. Steve secured it by mounting the base under the deck (the base is HUGE) and screwed it to boards under the deck. This is to ensure the thing didn't topple over or blow away. Since our deck is elevated, it's a possibility. It's so secure, the umbrella will likely rip off the frame before the frame went anywhere. What's also nice is that in the top of the umbrella is another "layer" so there is airflow - if a gust of wind did come, it'd end up going through the layers if you will, so it won't fly away (hopefully). 

We are thinking of getting a bar height cocktail table and two chairs since we have so much room and need more seating areas. 

The second photo above is my typical set up. What's nice about it is that we can just go up there and hang out, without ever going in the pool.

The girls go in pretty much every day that is nice. I'd say I go in about 75% of the time. Other times I'm just dipping my feet in, or sitting on the steps. Totally dependent on water temperature!

We can spend hours out there. I bring my laptop (job hunting, hello!) for music and the girls bring their toys up there and we just lounge. 

It's lovely. 

And now I have less worry about someone jumping (ahem, AVA!) off the deck and breaking a leg. 

Or while I'm trying to kill the horse flies I don't take a tumble off the deck.

The girls love jumping off the deck too! And they can get a running start.

Obviously, the railing is not complete in the above photo, but I wanted to show a pic of the girls jumping :)

The part that's NOT done yet is the bottom, lattice portion of the deck. Once we frame those and get them up, it'll be beautiful! Right now we just have to look at all the shit under there. 

It's taken us (mainly Steve) 2 summers to get this thing done. 

It's well worth it. 

Deck Umbrella

Like I mentioned before, we're trying to make our outside space a comfortable, welcoming, relaxing space.

But I also didn't want to spend a fortune.

Sigh.

Such is life.

To our advantage, lots of places are having "end of summer" sales, so we've benefited from that. The one thing that kinda stinks about that though, is that the items on sale are usually not the exact item I want.

For instance. The umbrella we got is tan. I would've preferred a prettier color. But the prettier color was $200 more.

So, nope!

I'm so glad we got an 11ft umbrella. It covers the entire sectional. 

There are solar-powered lights underneath! 

The umbrella came with a HUGE base that did not fit nicely anywhere.

So we're doing a custom DIY mount.

Using these stakes to go into the concrete.

Ta-da! The umbrella swivels, turns, goes almost flat (like a wall) so we feel that even though we've made this pretty permanent, we will still get a ton of use from where it's positioned. 

Deck stairs and patio furniture!

We're getting there! Like I mentioned, Steve is off for the next week. His goal is to get all the railings up on the deck. We won't be able to paint them white until next year, but at least they will be up!

He also finished the stairs:

Stairway to Heaven

Our new set arrived! Too bad it was raining when I got home, so everything was soaked. But, it's cute! I want to lay on it and try it out. 

It looks tiny from this angle.

We also got our umbrella, which is huge. It came with a GIANT base that we're supposed to fill with sand. It's so big...it won't fit under the sectional, and it's just big and ugly. Our plan is to put it in the corner and it's likely we wouldn't move it too much (it does swivel). So we could drill a hole, mount the base underneath with a shelf, and put the umbrella through the hole. We'll see.

We also bought clips to hold the sections of the couch together so we're not slippin' and slidin' all over the place. 

The red pillows came with the couch, so I just bought a red indoor/outdoor rug to match. 

He also got the white vinyl posts up.

These little caps make all the difference. 

More to come.

We have stairs! (Almost)

Steve made really good progress on the deck stairs this past weekend.

Saturday he started with the cement pad. It's dug 14 inches into the ground, then we got some free rock from the dump (we can take as much as we can hand-shovel). Then on top of that, we did poured cement.

Loads of rock

Cement goes in

We got their hand prints!

We have 4 of these guys, I just went in to start making dinner

Here we are as of Sunday night. Steve's a bit paranoid about the girls getting up there. I'm grateful he was thoughtful about that. A few more boards to go. 

August 4 - Deck Progress

Welp, we did it! We hit our milestone of getting all the TREX decking laid down by this past weekend.

Steve got a good amount done on Thursday and Friday, while I was at work and I helped him finish up Saturday/Sunday. Well, Papa actually ended up coming over for a bit and helped put the finishing touches on the decking.

I brought Bella up for a bit, but she wanted to jump down! 

I didn't want her to break a leg, so down she came.

So much area to fill! We plan on putting our furniture up against that back wall with a large umbrella. 

Two peas in a pod. (FYI, those TREX screws and plastic hardware to keep the boards together - cost $37 per box. PER FUCKING BOX! We went through like 12 or 15? I'm going to scrounge around on the ground and look for the ones we lost. For fuck's sake. $37. 

Here, he's using the jigsaw to make a cut-out for the post.

Meanwhile, the girls:

Playing soccer, lol

Definitely braver this year! My goal is to get Ava swimming with no floaties by the end of the summer. 

we built a fort to get out of the sun

The view from the girls' bathroom - Sunday afternoon (8/4)

Next up, the cement pad for the stairs. While Steve is working on that, I'm going to get started on the railings. 

We're halfway there! (Cue BonJovi)

In case anyone wants to revisit:

Here we go!

Progress!

But, dude!

I'm kinda shocked if I do say so myself!

We're seriously halfway there with laying the deck boards down. Steve was off Thursday and Friday of last week and got the railings up. He started with the decking and got maybe 6-8 laid down? Not sure.

He told me that it'd be much easier with two people.

Sidebar:
The girls went to "Parent's Night out" which our daycare provider holds a few times a year. We've actually never been able to benefit from it due to Steve's work schedule, but this one fell on a day off! So we went ahead with it. They do outside water play, crafts, movie, jammies, etc. We get from 3pm - 9pm. I dropped them off at about 3:20 and figured I'd take my time getting home (it's 5 minutes from my house)....but I knew there was a tent sale going on.

LOL I bought a Christmas tree. It was $2! 

Ok, sorry, back to the deck. (If this gives you any insight to how I think...well...ha! Poor Steve).

ANYWAY.

I get back home and I really want to make an iced coffee and sit and chill...But he was like "this would REALLY be better with two people...."

We spent a good few hours working on it before we went to dinner. We did pretty good and got a good amount done. 

I have to say, Steve and I have put together/build many things over the years and we've never fought. Ever. 

It's still the same! We work really well together. 

We picked up the girls early (around 8:30) and they pretty much went straight to bed. 

Sunday: we woke up bright and early! Just kidding. I think we finally rolled out of bed around 8:45. I made the girls breakfast and Steve pretty much went outside to work as soon as he got out of bed. I went to help him after the girls were settled. 

We found our groove with measuring, chalking, trimming, nailing, etc. 

MR's new spot is under the deck now. 

Measuring, chalking

We had to stop around 3pm because we realized we didn't have enough 12ft boards. We have a ton of 16ft boards, but not enough of the 12's. So back to LOWE'S Steve goes. (Those guys are HARD to carry! Not TOO heavy, but really awkward!) He made it back around 4:30 and we went back at it for 2 more hours. 

They LOVED jumping in!

The girls were able to hang out for a bit while we worked! 

I should've gotten a picture after we picked up all the crap. But alas, I didn't. 

And here we are at the end of Sunday, July 28. (Noticed how we DID clean up the mess?)

We plan on getting the vinyl/plastic white covers for all the posts, and then we will use wood railings, painted white (a project for next year). So, it won't match for a while, but I don't care! I'd rather do it the way we want - so next year it'll be beautiful! lol. 

We plan to (and will give it all we've got) to get ALL the decking laid over this upcoming weekend. Steve's home Thursday - Sunday, so he'll get a head start Thursday. Since it's much easier with two people, he will likely start the stairs. 

Oh, our railing height will end up being 39 inches. The pictures all show it at 42 inches which I like, but the vinyl plastic post covers apparently don't go that high. Code is 36" which seems SUPER low to ME, but what do I know. 

There will be a lot more progress to post this weekend! Stay tuned! 

Deck Progress

Steve is making progress. And I'm impressed! He's doing this all on his own. Not much help, other than the Deck Guru who helped with planning. Papa (Steve's dad) came over to help, but we weren't far enough along for him to actually help us. <update below>

I'm honestly surprised at how much is involved to make a deck. This thing will last much, much longer than our pool! LOL. 

We've got 18 holes, all about 45"-48" deep. 

July 9th. Cement in the holes, posts up.

We've got a few HUGE 20ft beams. We're hoping to get joists up soon.

Steve says that in about 2 weeks, the TREX decking will be laid down, so that we'll be able to get up there and have a platform to sit/be up on. Railing won't be up yet, so we'll need to be really, really careful with the kids. 

I can absolutely picture Ava looking over the edge and tumbling over. 

July 12th. Here's the view from Mila's room - a bit easier to see in its entirety. 

July 12th. It will end up being 600sq ft of usable space!

Not a bad view ;)

July 15th. We have the long beam + joint in the middle. Boards have been cut flush. 

July 16th. Joists going up next

July 16th. He's got all the super long joists up and is figuring 

out to make the curve that wraps around the pool 

(this view is from the girls' bathroom upstairs)

He told me he's hoping Wednesday (7/17) will be the day he starts laying decking down. 

If not, you'll see me this weekend up there with some plywood. LOL It's going to be like 93 on Saturday. I'm going to want to get in the pool! 

As of July 17, we have not yet started with the decking. However, we were very, VERY lucky that Steve's friend, the Deck Guru, stopped over and helped him for almost an entire day. He's the guy in the orange shirt. 

Here it is, as of July 17. All the framing is done. 

Literally the next thing to do is start laying decking down. 

I'm so freaking proud of him, you guys. Like, he spent every waking moment (almost) working on this thing, all while parenting the girls and making sure they were fed and kept alive. And the house was still standing (most days). 

Here's hoping we're able to use this deck the first weekend in August. Fingers crossed!