This activity includes several projects. The first and most prominent, at this point, is the replacement of an old deck, which had nails working upward out of the wood, many splinters (latent and actual) and many boards that were springy and un-level.
Javier Ramierz, our House Doctor Extrordinaire, removed the old deck with chain saws in a matter of a couple of hours and put all the scrap in a HUGE steel, Oversized Dumpster.... the kind they have at local community trash collection sites. Melynda, Henry and Anders arrived one day (before it was full) and Melynda said, 'GREAT LAWN ORNAMENT, HENRY!" That same day, since the dumpster was empty, Anders and I played inside and banged on the steel sides.
Anyway, the ACTIVITY with the new deck has not been as ACTIVE as we would have wished. The carpenter is very good, very thorough, but not ALWAYS on the job. (I think he shifts his time between jobs and we get about three days a week (if we are lucky.)
Needless to say, we have had a number of weeks where access to the usual doors to the Living Room or the Bedroom has been a bit of a challenge. I used the opportunity to try to strengthen my left leg by stepping up about 2 1/2 feet . My hope has been to be able to step into a stirrup and mount a horse with less clumsiness than normal. Mogie, on the other hand, found that sitting down on the threshold and then scooting herself into the house, was what worked best for her. The dogs have had relatively little problem except when all the stringers were up but NO decking on them. The dogs tried tight-rope walking to little avail.
Below are some shots of the new deck under construction. As I write this, the decking is 50% complete. Eventually we will have two sets of steps going off the deck (the original location at the main entrance and a new set opposite the French Doors to the Living Room,) the sides will have all benches with some wooden planters interspersed along the benches. We will fashion some sort of retaining structure to keep little people ON the deck where they are in sight.
