Before and After: The Deck

Why hello there blog! Miss me much?

The last month has been a whirlwind of activities, travel, and good stuff around the house. It's also been party to more than a couple crying jags, but I'm not here to talk about those. At least, not right now. What I am here to talk about is my spiffy new deck!

The condo association is replacing all of the main floor decks over 4 summers. There are 16 units here, so we did 7 decks last summer that were structurally unsound and need to be replaced ASAP. That left us with 9 decks and a plan to replace 3 a summer through 2013. Original plan was to basically draw straws to determine whose deck would be replaced first, but it was suggested and voted on at the annual Owner's Meeting in May that the contractor should re-inspect the remaining 9 and we'd do the 3 worst this year. Also voted on at the meeting? Me onto the board of directors. Interestingly enough, the 3 decks that wound up being replaced this year were mine, the one other member of the board who didn't have a replacement yet, and the outgoing member whose board seat I took! I swear there were no shenanigans involved!

Originally my deck was only 5' wide - basically just wide enough to fit the grill across one end of it and to have a tiny table with two chairs pushed up against the wall.

Before pictures:

Left: Photo of the rear of my townhouse from the fall I moved in. Showing not only the original deck, but also the original windows (since replaced), the original sliders (ditto), bushes that are no longer there (chopped down by me), trees that are no longer there (chopped down by the condo association), and a collapsing retaining wall that has since been dug out and replaced (thanks again, condo assoc!)
Right: The original deck was pretty much just wide enough for the hammock chair.

 I came home from work on a Monday and had big huge X's of caution tape across the two sliders in the living room - and nothing outside them! It was a great view, sadly I forgot to take a picture. The next day the deck joists were up and temporarily attached to some plank posts so the contractors could pour footings in the right places. The cats were itching to go out and inspect after 2 days of watching people outside their windows all day. Perhaps trying to recreate the days he spent walking along the rafters at my parents' old cabin (left pic), Boo bravely managed to work his way out to the far corner and plop down (center pic). Deck joists are narrower than log cabin rafters though, and he's a little bit wider, so once he got out there, he wasn't too keen on coming back (right pic)! It took about 15 minutes of me coaxing with the kitty treats and him giving me "but I can't balance on this!" looks to get him back inside.

 Gracie, on the other hand, being a normal cat-sized cat, flitted right out and across the joists and back again. She approves of the deck construction. Boo was not amused.

 New deck is now 8' wide, which adds about 60 sq ft of space to my outside area. It's practically a dance floor out there now! The table and chairs look way too small now, though, and I finally have the space to seat more than a couple of people, soooo.....

 ...I hit up Lowes' Labor Day sale for some half price deck furniture! A table and 4 new chairs for $70, which I figured was a steal. I still haven't moved the grill back onto the deck yet, but I spent a good portion of Monday afternoon sitting in the sun, reading, and enjoying the space. Planning an official "Christen the Deck" party in a couple of weekends!

Backyard Rainbow

Home early this afternoon because of a midday dentist appointment, and was just in time to catch a late afternoon thunderstorm as it passed over. It quickly turned sunny again but kept raining, resulting in a rainbow in my backyard!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday I posted an Ambitious To-Do List for the weekend. I know myself, and I know the lazy is strong within me, so I figured I'd be happy if I got at least a couple of things checked off. I have a bad habit of procrastinating projects in favor of sleeping in late and reading. I thought if I had a list posted somewhat publicly, it might give me some incentive to get off the couch on Saturday and Sunday.


-Oh. Dear. God. Take the recycling to the transfer station. This was actually the first thing I did on Saturday - no missing closing time at the transfer station again!
-Scrub the bathroom. The downstairs bathroom sink got overlooked until tonight, but both baths are now sparkly clean, and the upstairs one has been swiffered to pick up all the stray hair, both human and feline. 
-Figure out what is causing the upstairs toilet to leak, and fix it. Diagnosis: Leaky fill valve. Solution: Install all new guts to toilet. Result: Much swearing, 3 trips to the hardware store, and some very sore muscles, but in the end the water both runs AND stops when it is supposed to, and does not drip out of any unanticipated locations. Win! In fact, I am so impressed with myself, it may warrant a post of its own.
-Everything that was listed Tuesday regarding the laundry closet? Yeah, do that. Mostly done with this one. The shelves have been secured to the wall and the hanging bar installed. The CO monitor is back in place. Everything is organized neatly back on the shelves. All that remains is installing the bar light and hanging the curtain.
-Vacuum.
-Do something productive with the basement - put things away, or at least stack them neatly. I probably should have been less vague about the basement, but then again, the vagueness means I get to check it off. Put all the books away and pulled out a bunch to swap/donate. Tidied up the camping gear, repacked the two camping totes, and stacked them by the door, since I'm going camping again this summer. Finally cleaned out the bar cupboard and put all the booze away. Gathered up a bunch of junk to throw out, and stacked up the empty boxes. It's still kind of a mess down there now, but at least you can see the floor in the main part of the finished room.
-Mail a belated b'day gift to Auntie L.
-Turn the house upside down looking for the round mirror. Found in only the second place I looked, so I didn't have to rip the house apart too much.
-Turn the house back right side up. Half marks for this one. It didn't get too trashed looking for the mirror, and I managed to clear some trouble spots, like the guest room bed. There's still more work to be done though on the straightening up front.
-Recreate some photo shoot ideas and play around with the camera.
-Put together at least one section of the Israel trip photo book.
-Do something for the Pinterest Challenge. Technically, I still have until tomorrow to do this! :-P
-Cook real food. Grilled chicken tenders, zucchini, and garlic bread for lunch on Saturday. Made rice to go with leftovers for Saturday dinner. Ate more leftovers, a nommy grilled cheese sandwich, and made peanut butter cupcakes on Sunday. Yay, real food!
-Go for a run.

So 14 tasks overall, and I completed 7 and gave myself half marks for 2 more. Not bad. I also went out for dinner and drinks with a friend and then played Wii until 1 AM on Friday, and slept late and spent half the afternoon reading on Sunday. So even though it looks like I only worked on the boring household stuff, I still had a fun and relaxing weekend.

I really should get off my butt and go for a run though....

Weekend Productivity

I'm borrowing an idea from my friend, Craftosaurus, and creating an Ambitious To Do List for this weekend. Maybe this will keep me somewhat accountable for the next two days? Probably not, but let's try!

-Oh. Dear. God. Take the recycling to the transfer station.
-Scrub the bathroom.
-Figure out what is causing the upstairs toilet to leak, and fix it.
-Everything that was listed Tuesday regarding the laundry closet? Yeah, do that.
-Vacuum.
-Do something productive with the basement - put things away, or at least stack them neatly.
-Mail a belated b'day gift to Auntie L.
-Turn the house upside down looking for the round mirror.
-Turn the house back right side up.
-Recreate some photo shoot ideas and play around with the camera.
-Put together at least one section of the Israel trip photo book.
-Do something for the Pinterest Challenge.
-Cook real food.
-Go for a run.

The Final 5%

Why is the last little bit of a home improvement project always so hard to motivate myself to complete? The latest on a long list of not-quite-done tasks that has been growing since 2006 is the laundry closet redo.

Here's what I've done so far:
-sold the old washer and dryer
-had the walls repaired, the dryer vent moved up to the level of the outlet on the stacked dryer, and an extra subfloor put down
-removed the shelf and patched all the screw holes
-painted the ceiling (1 coat), trim including inside the door frame, and walls (all 2 coats)
-installed press-and-stick vinyl tile floor - please note that there were 6 tiles I could lay whole and 9 that needed to be cut!
-had a new washer and dryer delivered and installed
-bought and assembled a closet shelving unit to go next to the stacked washer and dryer

You know what I need to do before I can call it complete?
-buy 4 extra-long L brackets and secure the shelving unit to the wall (and a shorty level, since mine is too long to fit on the shelves to line everything up)
-install the hanging rod that came with the closet shelving unit. This involves carrying the stepladder upstairs, so you know, quite the effort there! But I can't really do that until the L brackets are on.
-buy some ironable hem tape, turn up the hems of the curtains I use instead of doors, and hang the curtains and rod back up. But again, there's no point in doing this until the other 2 tasks are done, because they'll just be in the way.

If I really wanted to get crazy, I could also reinstall the CO detector in the closet (took it down to paint the ceiling) and mount the little bar light I had on the shelf previously to the door frame. But let's not get carried away here!

Le sigh. Motivation. Sometimes it's so fleeting!

Gracie Cat

These were too cute not to share. In my next life, I really think I want to come back as a cat. Sleeping 18 hours a day, someone else to feed you and let you in and out...I could get used to that!

Gracie says "But it's such hard work being a kitty cat!"

How to Ruin an Awesome Night

So you meet up with friends to go out in Beantown for a going-away celebration. Said group of friends includes your ex-boyfriend, but you figure you can handle it for an evening - you've been talking over IM for a while and you've both agreed that this night is about your friend who is moving back home overseas. And secretly, you figure the night will be a success as long as you don't wind up crying in a bar bathroom somewhere.

So you go out, and everyone has a great time. Drinks are had. Food is consumed. More drinks are had. There is some dancing at some point. And you and the ex are friendly, and then flirty, and keep "accidentally" touching each other, and it's wonderful. The night winds down, the band finishes their set, you're all hanging out at the bar finishing last-call drinks. You head to the restroom one last time, and when you come back 2 minutes later, he's gone.

You all head outside, ready to take a cab back to another friend's apartment, and everyone is looking for him and wondering where he is. Finally he texts someone that he left, and texts you, telling you that he finds you way too attractive and so is walking home. Drunk, tired, feeling both abandoned by him and annoyed with yourself, you text back, telling him to F off.

So, what had previously been a fun evening suddenly feels like it has fallen into the shitter. Cab ride back is miserable - hot, lonely even with 4 other people there, and ends as all drunken cab rides seem to: with contents of stomach no longer where they should be. You somehow manage to avoid crying (a minor victory of sorts), but do spend some time outside whining to the only friend of the group who knows that the ex is your ex.

You crash on an air mattress at the apartment, and wake up at 7 and drive yourself home. Where you promptly go back to bed for 4 hours, and then spend the rest of the day alternating between reading and napping. You kind of hate yourself for still feeling this way about the ex, even though it's been 5 months since you broke up. You also kind of hate yourself for getting your hopes up that maybe things had changed. You really hate him for not being the man you thought he was, and for, as typical, taking the easy way out by disappearing on you. And you really wish that there was an off switch somewhere in your heart or brain so you could just get over him and move on with your life already, because missing him this much cannot be healthy.

Love sucks.