Eric and Roger made saw-horses out of scrap wood and they were testing them out!
Good-bye Altheas.... guess I am not going to transplant them....
With these three working... I guarantee you it is square! Eric's brother Brad and family came to visit... well he got put to work, the rest of us got to chill out together.
This job ended up being a LOT harder than expected. We have a lot of clay in the soil and the auger would just stop... they would have to break it up with a shovel and then try again.
Addison watching her Daddy at work.. she loved it!
3 of the 5 holes are done! And they are 4 feet deep as required by code!
Well, I am sure most of you are getting bored with more water pictures but it's been such a long HOT summer that this is pretty much what we do... swim!
Lauren's buddy Kennedy comes to play for the day.
Natlie takes a dive
Our first trip to the Aquatic Center of the summer. This one is over by Hoover High School and it's bit smaller than the others but it was perfect because Lauren could go on the slide (and can't at the others, she's too short) AND it's really cheap. It cost us $8 for the 3 of us to go for the day.
We spent a LOT of time at the Freundl's pool this summer. It's been so much fun. The kids have a blast.. and so do the moms!
I had to take a photo of this because they were all facing away from each other while eating their snacks... not sure why. I think they were so hungry they just plopped down to eat.
Well folks.... it is PAST time to get this deck down and build a new one. The next few photos are the before pictures and I will post as we make progress. Eric and his dad are building the deck. So, what that means is, it will be done right and it will be done well... but it will not be done quick. Which is just fine by me. Plus, they have a good time together building things. So here we go...
If you look close enough you will notice how badly the house needs to be painted as well... oh and those windows... those need to go too. So, as you can see, we have our work cut out for us. We are doing the deck, and when I say we, it's really Eric and Roger but we are hiring the windows and painters. We are going to lose my Althea bushes because the deck will be coming out more... not sure if I can save them but I am going to try.
This retaining wall will be gone soon and the deck will come to the edge of the house. The windows here will be built up a bit so they are not floor length and new windows put in. Do you know what that means? It means that the paper shades on there now can be replaced with REAL window coverings. The current windows require custom blinds and I am too cheap for that, it was going to be over $1000 for those three windows. But soon I can get some pretty ones on there. My dad always makes a comment on how lovely my paper shades from Home Depot are.
Eric asked my not to take pictures of him... oops!
The first stage of demolition.. the old rotted, bowed railing!
Elise helps Grandpa Hubbard with the tedious task of getting all of the nails out of the boards
Lauren's turn
Daddy's little helper! I don't know if pajamas and flip-flops are the proper attire in a work zone.
Almost done getting the boards up. We are just laying them on top for a bit just until we get going on the rest. We can still access the back yard for a bit this way.. but then it will be a while.
The railing is down!!! I really want to have an open deck because it's amazing how much better you can see when you don't have a railing, but, unfortunately, code requires a railing for most of it. We did order a new patio set that is a higher table so that will be good to see out into the yard. And right now, the view is spectacular, dead, brown grass everywhere, thanks to the drought this summer (insert sarcasm here).
You can see how far out on this side we are going to go too. It will go to the edge of the house on this side too. I am so excited I can't stand it. We have been talking about it for years and something has always come up. I wasn't sure it was going to happen this summer either but we are on the way.
