All "decked" out for Summer!

After a long hiatus, I have decided to come out of retirement and return to blogging. I'm hoping to challenge my wife's superior blogging skills, although I'm sure I'll fail miserably.

Summer started out quite busy for the Van Hooses. A few days after school let out, Annie and I sat down and made a list of goals we wanted to accomplish before I returned to school (I won't give the whole list here). First up on the to dos was a beast of a project:

When we bought the house, the inspector said that the deck was really the only thing that needed to be replaced. As you can see, it was in a very sorry state. The wood was warped, cracking, and nails were protruding pretty much everywhere you looked. Every time I walked on it I was thankful for two things: 1. We had health insurance. 2. My tetanus shot was current.

Enter Anne's father, master deck builder. We got together, he came up with a plan, and we set a goal to finish the deck before independence day. The following pictures show two and a half weeks of good, hard, manual labor:

This is what it looked like after tearing the old deck down. The whole thing was held together entirely by nails!

Setting the posts for the new deck.

Putting up the supports.

Laying out the deck boards. Thanks for helping out Ty!

As you can see, Lucy enjoyed the new deck. All the boards on top were in place. We just had to finish the stairs, the railing, and a little deck "landing" below.

Lucy loved helping Dad measure the boards and then put them in place.

Finally, here is the finished product:

It's been really nice to have a deck that has enough room to have patio furniture. We had a barbecue with family and friends to celebrate Sammy's blessing. We also just like sitting out there in the cool of the evening, checking out an amazing view of the mountains.

Thanks to my wonderful wife Annie who helped in planning, making decisions, caring for the kids, and making sure we were all safe! Thanks also to Tyler, Tracie, and Kristen for helping out. Lastly, a special thanks to my father in law, John. There's no way this would have been done without you

We're very grateful for our new deck and look forward to using it in the years to come!