Monday...Monday...Monday

Alan and I spent the weekend working outside. It was in the high 70s Saturday, but a perfect 75* on Sunday. Today, however, it's back in the 80s and tomorrow is to once again reach 100*. Sigh. Is there no end to this heat..??

Saturday Alan slaved away removing the dangerous gravel, that for some ungodly reason, was used for a very steep path down the sloping backyard. Wheelbarrow-load after wheelbarrow-load. He piled it in the space that will eventually be under the back deck, which was a very good idea. While he was doing that, I filled the two million screw holes on the front deck with wood putty so we could begin staining the deck today, then painted the side of the house that was discolored when the guys removed the old deck in back.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans of staining today didn't happen. First thing this morning I had to sand the wood putty, then the whole deck needed to be washed down in preparation for the stain. As it got hotter, I got grumpier as the sweat ran down my face until finally I ended up borrowing Miguel's sander for the hard parts. Even so, it took me until lunch to get the flaming deck prepped. By then it was too hot to stain, so we'll try again early tomorrow morning.

Miguel and Chris came this morning and bulldozed through the framing of the back deck. We've changed the old octagon-shaped deck into a long, wide rectangle, which I totally love, and they cranked it out before the heat got too awful. We should have the new deck by the end of the week, though the railings won't be attached as they needed to be ordered.

Some photos of the wretched and ugly backyard...though I'm already loving the size of the deck.

You can see the weird and dangerous path that Alan cleared in this next photo.  Imagine how much worse it was with pea gravel..!!  I nearly killed myself last week when I slipped and fell down these horrible "steps".  I'm not sure what we're going to do to fix this, but it might have to wait until Spring, or until I can come up with a better plan for getting down this steep slope.

Even though it looks like there are actual steps in the dirt, there really aren't.  It's an uneven, bumpy, hurling-to-your-doom path that will be removed and another, better way from the deck to the lower garden will have to be found.

So, other than taking Ozzy to the park, we had an uneventful working weekend.  One of these days the fun just has to stop.  Know what I mean...??