Styling The Pit

The weather over the past two weeks has been phenomenal. April and May are not generally known for being 'spring' in this part of the world. When I was growing up, this time of the year was most definitely still late winter. Yesterday afternoon hit 21 degrees on our thermometer in the back yard. The boys were greased down with sunscreen and I was almost concerned about being too warm. I have even had the heat off and the windows wide open most days over the past two weeks.

With any hint of Spring weather comes the desire to create an oasis in our gravel pit of a backyard. The Veseys catalogue comes out and DH and I start dreaming. If we don't procrastinate too much, we might  actually get to use the $50 off our order coupon on the back of the catalogue this year.

When DH and I first got together, we agreed that I would have decorating veto power on everything in the house except for the kitchen as DH also cooks and bakes and is very, very picky about his cooking space. When we moved to this house, I found the large, untouched space of the outside of the house so overwhelming that I gave him complete design control over that too. In hindsight that might not have been wise as DH has teasingly reminded me that this open concept house means the majority of the living space is in the 'kitchen territory' so I have essentially lost decorating veto power in most of the house. Sigh.

Let's talk about one of DH's projects for a change. I have told you something about my on the go projects and when DH has a project on the go, it is usually something big. Real big.

First off, DH worked very, very hard the summer of 2011 digging a hole in preparation for a larger, grade level deck in our back yard. He had to stop due to the Fall weather which worked out actually as it gave him a chance to look at the fruit of his labour and see how the plan would work with respect to drainage etc.

Turns out, it wasn't going to work out well. At. All.

Hmm. A pond in the back yard wasn't part of the plan. The boys
enjoyed it while it lasted though.

So, Plan B was developed.

DH's hand dug deck space before the gravel spreader turned up.

The stone slinger was a bit hit with the boys. They watched safely from
inside the house.

More back breaking labour.

Eldest looks so intense and so cute!

Ah! Major progress.

Lookin' good!

Every deck raising requires extra helpers (all the way from
British Columbia no less!).

Helping Daddy.

Enjoying the new deck already.

Beautiful mitres.

More extra hands.

Aww!

The home stretch.

Completed on a gorgeous evening.

The bank behind the deck is one of the areas we hope to tackle
this summer 2013.

The sky we will get to enjoy from our new deck.

The view from the end of the deck back towards the house and the
smaller 'cooking' deck. Middlest calls our new deck the party deck. I
think he's right!