Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The other task we took on when the Pucketts were in town was cutting down trees around our house. We rented a lift and my dad spent some quality time in the air with his chain saw cutting down trees from the top down. We cut down six small ones right along our back fence that were in the way of a future privacy fence and the utility wires.

We also cut down a 60-foot hackberry tree that was 30 inches in diameter. It was huge, and quite an undertaking to remove.

Who does that? I mean, don't normal people just cry when they write the check to the tree service?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Haven't blogged in a while--been too tired. We've been tired because Dan and I have spent the last month getting ready for our big summer project. We decided that we wanted to build a deck on the back of our house. Our plan was to build a small deck with pressure treated lumber, which is the most economical option. Then, we found an auction on Craigslist for an entire house. An entire house in Franklin, Tenn. was being torn down, and all o f its parts were being auctioned off to defray the cost of the operation and demolition of the house.

We decided to put a low bid on the entire deck of the house, because the deck was huge. It was also made of composite deck material, the most expensive and longest lasting decking material you can buy. Our bid was accepted, and viola, we bought a deck. Too bad it was attached to another building 25 miles from our house.

My parents came to town in May and helped us make a lot of progress on the deconstruction. You can see the deck and house deconstruction process below.

After almost a month, we have torn down the entire deck and it's now in big piles in my back yard waiting to be reconstructed as our brand new awesome deck.

Ours won't be as big as it was originally, because the deck was 1,100 square feet. But, we will have a HUGE party when we're done so that everyone can come over and see our new space. Look out for an invitation!

This is not the whole deck--there's more behind my mom, who's taking the picture.

Making progress.

My dad needed a break over lunch. We worked him to the bone during his visit. More to come on those activities...

This is the whole lower level. All of the the decking is up and we've started removing the joists.

This was as far as we got the day my parents were in town helping. Dan and I did the rest.