The Allen version of Yard Crashers continued this week. My last blog post about the deck finished up on last Sunday, with three pergola posts up and one of the actual deck boards on. The work was slow since during the week it’s just what John can get done from the time he gets home, until dinner is served.
Monday evening, John was able to put the bracket down for our last pergola post. This post is actually sitting on part of the old patio under the small deck. Tuesday evening, we got the post up and secured to the bracket. Wednesday, John put a few boards in before dinner. Thursday, John picked up more supplies and I decided to have a pizza night, so I could help out some. We got a few more boards down. The kids liked running back and forth across the forming deck.
John also put in another of the railing posts.
Friday was the big work day. John took the day off work just because. He ran that morning to get a few more supplies that he wasn’t able to pick up Thursday evening. Then we started trying to get as much done as we could. The goal was to at least finish putting all the floor boards on, which meant also putting up all the railing posts before hand. By the end of the day we had all the boards on the big deck. The kids decided to throw a dance party on it. I guess you could say it was their “We are done for the day” dance.
Once we got the dancing monkeys off and finished the sweeping this is what it looked like.
This is what our view will look like from the deck.
Well, of course the trailer and John’s truck with boards sticking out the back will be gone. But a good view of the kids’ play area. Friday ended with sore muscles and pure exhaustion, but it felt good to see the end in sight.
Saturday, we really didn’t know what to expect. I was worried about being able to help John put up the boards on the pergola, so he enlisted help from some friends. We weren’t sure if and when they were going to come over, but our plan was just to keep going and see how far we get. As I helped get everyone dressed in layers and pick up the house some; John started working on the railing.
Then one of his friends, Allen, showed up. Since we had the extra help, we decided to start on the pergola. We got the four large main boards across the two sides. Then it was on to the cross boards. John and Allen were able to work on the pergola while I was able to focus on food. We had pizza for lunch and I ran to the store for food to cook for dinner during nap time. Then about three another friend showed up. Jeff, his wife, Erika and their two little girls showed up.
Erika and I hung out with the little ones, and I helped here and there; but the guys really were the hard workers. Of course since we had company, Noah and Caleb were more willing to help out. John and I really didn’t expect the deck to be finished Saturday; but in true Yard Crasher form the guys pushed through the evening. They finished the cross boards on the pergola and most of the railing right before dark.
It looks great!!! We ended the night with hamburgers for everyone, including our awesome friends that helped out, grilled on our new deck!! We are SO greatful for the help we had on Saturday!!!
The deck is not 100% done, but it is pretty close. The funny thing is that even though we have just a few things that HAVE to be done to finish it off, we have a list a mile long of all the things that would like to do. The “have to do’s” will be done as soon as we can; the “like to do’s” will be done in time.