Weekend Update #14 (part 4) All Hands on Deck

Visit Deck Building Fun with Mot and Nej (part 1) here and (part 2) here and (part 3) here if you haven't already. :-)

I left work early on Monday (since my client was closed due to the swine flu - their manufacturing plant is in Mexico). When I got home...this is what was done. Almost all of the decking....yeah!!!!



(Aaric, Tom and Danny worked their butts off on the decking while I was at work.)


(Now to start building the steps.)




(Robin arrived when she got off of work.)


(Aren't they cute together?)


(Jealous of my tool belt, aren't you? hehehe)


(The first half of the steps on the long side were almost done when.....)


(...we discovered an issue, and had to take the whole mess off of the deck to fix it.)


(No one wanted to leave until that first section of steps was complete. We had to bring the lights out.)


(Mot attached the section of steps back to the deck...finally!)

Once we finished putting that top step on...we called it quits for the day. Mot and I sat on the completed section of steps after everyone had gone. Well....until it started raining on us. :-)

______________________________________________________________

I went to work as normal on Tuesday and worked the full day through. When I got home, I found Mot and Danny hard at work...again.









(One corner down, one to go!!)

(Once the project is done, all pics will be posted on my webshots page)

Weekend Update #14 (part 3) Who the decks idea was this, anyway?

Visit Deck Building Fun with Mot and Nej (part 1) here and (part 2) here if you haven't already. :-)

My camera was just laying about the job site all weekend, and it's getting harder and harder to pick which pictures to post. So, instead of doing a bunch of talkie talkie....here is day 3, in pictures.


(What we started with Sunday am.)


(Rowan - the blind dog - after getting groomed the day before.)


(You could hear this squirrel over the saws....crunching on nuts...he didn't seem too worried about us and the noise we were making.)


(My allergies were killing me, and I ran out of Kleenex.)


(The support framing done.)


(Starting to put the joists on the deck.)


(Robin and I made tacos for the crew for lunch.)


(Sick of the camera.) :-)


(Anchoring the joists.)


(Danny and the ding ding man.)


(The second load of wood...decking and some of the materials for the steps. After the truck damaging episode the day before, we decided to steal the neighbor and his trailer for the second batch of lumber.)


(Here we are, explaining the truck damage to my dad.)


(Putting the border on the top edge of the deck.)


(I don't know, how many friends DOES it take to screw in a piece of lumber?)


(The foundation is finally done, starting to put the decking on.)


(What it looked like at the end of Day 3.)

(Once the project is done, all pics will be posted on my webshots page)

Weedkend Update #14 (part 2) Having one Deck of a Time

Visit Deck Building Fun with Mot and Nej (part 1) here if you haven't already. :-)

It was hard getting up Saturday morning. We left the house about 6:45 ish and headed towards Wilson Island State Park, where mom and dad spend the summers as camp hosts.

We were going to borrow their truck to haul deck lumber...and leave the Jeep with dad to use for the weekend. The park was hosting a pancake feed, so we were also taking our long folding table up for them to use.

After picking up the truck, we had some time to waste before Lowe's opened at 9:00. We drove to Plattsmouth, NE to do some banking....and we also ate breakfast at a small diner in town. What a nice little place....wonderfully happy and cheerful waitresses. I expected one of them to say "Kiss my Grits" before we left...but sadly, it didn't happen. :-)

From there we went home and filled in the post holes with dirt, grabbed our work gloves and headed out for lumber.


(holes filled in and ready for construction - our blind dog, Rowan - not pictured - kept running into the posts - whoops)


(making sure we got all the bolts, nuts, screws, brackets and washers that we needed)


(pushing the first load of lumber out of the store)


(loaded into the pickup)

On the way home, driving an agonizing 15 miles per hour, we encountered a common "obstacle" in Nebraska....pot holes. One pot hole in particular had our name written all over it. Even though we were driving slow....the bump of the pot hole jostled the lumber straight up, then back down on the tailgate of the truck. The wobbling lumber then wobbled itself right out of the truck bed and into the middle of the road...in the middle of town. Luckily, no one was anywhere near us.

Mot pulled the truck into a turn lane...and we both jumped out...and starting chucking the lumber into the turn lane behind the tuck and out of traffic.

Sadly, it wasn't the time to get my camera out...even though it did come to mind. :-)

One person drove by in the outside lane....honked and flipped us off, screaming "f*cking moron!"

I, being the quiet and shy person that I am, stepped out into the lane of traffic we had blocked....gave him the double bird, and screamed "f*cking a**hole!!"

This brought quite a few giggles to the minivan of people who were sitting in our blocked lane with their hazard lights on to keep us from getting hit. Glad I could entertain!!! :-)

On a less entertaining note...we bent the tailgate of their truck. Yeah, I about threw up right there when I saw it. My heart sank, and I thought Mot was going to cry.


(this picture really doesn't do it justice...but if you look really close, you can see where the tailgate is bowed out, and the tailgate handle is sticking out...the door closes and the handle is operational...but this is going to throw us over on our deck building budget, for sure) :-(

Robin, Aaric, Danny and Steve all arrived at our house throughout the day, ready to work.



(While Mot and Aaric started attaching the ledger board to the house....)


(....Robin and I took the opportunity to start giving our three Scotties their spring grooming...you should see the piles of black fur in our yard!!!)


(Helping put the long section of ledger board on the house.)


(Starting to attach the beams to the posts)


(Making sure things were level and square.)


(????)


(Calling it quits for the night....Robin, Aaric, Mot and I went for pizza at our favorite pizza place.)


(Once the project is done, all pics will be posted on my webshots page)

Weekend Update #14, Deck the Halls

Hello everybody out there in blogger land. Today we're presenting part 1 of How to (and Not to) Build a Deck.

This post is sponsored by Home Depot, Lowes, Home Depot, Home Depot, Lowes, Lowes, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Home Depot, Lowes, and the place that does the body work on my parent's F250 truck. (we'll get to that story later - body work quotes are still coming in)

Who knew building a deck could be so interesting? So informational. Such a growing, physically injuring, and property damaging experience?

(sigh)

The story starts on Friday, May 1.

I got a couple text messages from Mot...saying something along the lines of....

...started to build the deck today. I loaded 1000 pounds of concrete and 4x4's in the back of the Jeep. I think I took a couple years off of it's lifespan.

...think I'm going to take the manual post hole digger back, and rent an mechanical one for the day. I don't feel like digging eight 44 inch deep holes today.

...dug all 8 holes for the posts. By hand. Will put concrete in the holes and fill them with dirt tonight, when I have help.

Then, I get a call.....

Mot: How big do we want this deck?

Nej: I thought you had all the holes dug, what's up?

Mot: (frustrated) Well, I made a mistake. Unless I fill in and re-dig the 4 holes on the outside, the deck will be 2.5 feet less wide than we'd planned.

Then later in the day....

....re-dug those 4 holes. This will be much better.

:-)

When I get home, I help him work on getting the 4 holes aligned, bags of concrete poured, and posts leveled.

We finished the last couple after the sun had gone down...but darn it, they were done and ready for building the next day.

(Mot dug a total of 15 holes for those 8 posts. Saying he was tired and sore would be a gross understatement.)



(digging that hole...for the third time...poor guy!)


(holes dug, and ready)


(concrete poured and setting)


(much needed beverage break)


(Once the project is done, all pics will be posted on my webshots page)

Jail Birds?

LOS ANGELES - A man was charged Tuesday with smuggling songbirds into the United States by hiding more than a dozen of them in an elaborate, custom-tailored pair of leggings during a flight from Vietnam to Los Angeles.

Sony Dong, 46, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in March after an inspector spotted bird feathers and droppings on his socks and tail feathers peeking out from under his pants, prosecutors said.

"He had fashioned these special cloth devices to hold the birds," said U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek. "They were secured by cloth wrappings and attached to his calves with buttons."

And he'd have gotten away with it, had it not been for those...........tail feathers and bird droppings? Ugh!!!!

News and Pic Source

Friday, at last!!!

Today is the day to clean off the desk at work....to finally do all the projects I put off because I didn't want to do them....and have no deadline to finish. But darn it, they've been here long enough that I'll look bad if someone comes to me asking if they're done yet.

(sigh)

Fast forward ten minutes (OK, why didn't I do those sooner? they took no time what-so-ever to complete. oh well)

Now what....

(tapping fingers on desk)

Blog reading. I've got over 200 posts sitting in my reader, just waiting to be read. I finally have time to do that!!! Let's see, I went on vacation at the end of March...it's only taken me 1 month to get caught up enough to start reading them.

Also......emails. I've got a email file full of silly emails to read and delete....or just delete in some cases. Chain mail and Nej don't mix. I'm just sayin'.

First one up.....a Pepsi commercial.

I'm laughing, I'm giggling, and I can't help it.

Happy Friday folks!!!!!

It's done!

The counters, sink, faucet, and tile is finally done!!!!

Before looking west.



After looking west. (The new counter is thicker than the old one...so our mixer doesn't fit under the cabinets anymore. I'll put a mixer lift in the cabinet directly below where it's sitting...but for now, it will just have to sit the way it is.)


Before looking east.


After looking east.


Boy, from these pictures it doesn't look crazy different like it does in person. Bummer. :-)

Now I get to start on re-doing the cabinet doors!!!!