Deck and Yard Weekend

This Canada Day long weekend, Marn and I decided that we were going to concentrate on finishing the deck (and fence) and do as little else as possible.
Well, we somewhat accomplished our goal, and we've come really far in getting everything done. Today (Monday), if I had worked harder, I probably could have finished it all, but we felt like relaxing and just cleaning up the house a little.
Saturday we pretty much worked all day and into the evening; I worked on the deck and Marn her new garden; cutting out and turning the sod and soil. Sunday, we were at a friend's BBQ for most of the day, but that evening finished a few more sections of railing.

Here are the fruits of our labour... not much to see really; just imagine a lot of lush garden, and imagine that the top rail of the deck is screwed on - they are not. I also need to finish the "skirt" which was another thing I was hoping to get to this weekend but didn't (it was too nice today to work!).

The garden doesn't look that big, but it is - about half way down the yard, and min. 3 feet wide all the way and used nearly a yard of soil, and we're getting more plus mulch. The bushes in front are (a possibly failed transplant) from the the front of the house, which hosta's have replaced. Turning that soil is killer work. The ground is SO HARD, plus add in that it's mostly clay... uggh! I don't know how Marn did most of it herself, and managed to patch up a lot of the dead grass spots in the back as well. Keeping Echo out of the dirt is proving to be a challenge as you can probably see his foot prints in the photo, but we knew that already.

A new view from the yard, showing a few new plants to get into the ground.

And a view from the back sliding door. The BBQ corner is also done with the same railing, but there are piles of wood on chairs that are hiding it, so I didn't take a photo of that. Also notice that the fence posts are finally cut to size (they were sticking up before)!

We really, really like it! Also notice that I didn't attempt the stair rails yet because I have to take them apart to match the rest (we had changed our minds from the original plan for the railing).

It's getting there! If only we can figure out a way to stop Echo's pee from killing our grass.... (after re-seeding and transplants, it's a losing battle!)

This morning Marn's family came over for "Canada Day brunch". It was really nice; mostly because Marn's Mom brought pretty much everything! We just had to host (they also wanted to see the deck), so that was a no-brainer. We provided the coffee, sour-dough pancakes and Marn made scones... I'll take that deal every day!