New back deck

We have wanted a bigger deck off our back door since we moved here and we finally found the ability to build it. James has a friend who knows construction better than him and with another friend, they have taken on this project. It is still not done as I write this in December but when it is finished, I will post a picture. It's going to be awesome!

I wasn't home to receive the lumber delivery unfortunately, so I couldn't tell the guys where to leave all the lumber. But maybe it was fortunate? Because if I had been home, the van would have been trapped in the garage and I wouldn't have been able to leave to get Abi from school because check out where they left it!!

Lumber delivery

James and the kids spent hours carrying it around to the back of the house. Ok, I should say, James spent hours, the kids helped for about 20 minutes. But while they helped, they were the most dedicated helpers you ever saw.

Big helpers

Audrianne helping

He had a difficult time figuring out how to carry the load properly and he really wants to do things himself these days without our help so... this is what you get, buddy, when you say no to help. Haha!

Hyrum helping

My kids love showing off their muscles these days. I have no idea where they learned it. But it cracks me up!

Big muscles

To motivate them to help more, I made fruit smoothies. That mostly just brought the work to a halt.

Hard workers

Here is our old deck just before demolition.

Before

The kids stayed inside to watch and were in such disbelief and anxiety that daddy's friend was breaking our house. Haha! We are always getting on them to be nice to the house and not break it because then we won't have money for fun things, just for fixing the house. That was a bit difficult to explain that what he was doing was ok and desired.

"Breaking our house"

No more deck

The skeleton deck

Making it functional

It's so weird to see such a big deck outside our windows. I could hardly get anything done as the guys worked because I was so excited! But, alas, it didn't get finished in one day, turns out. And six weeks later, it's still not finished. Almost though! It is usable now (Dec), just needs a railing. I can't wait to enjoy the finished product!

Bare bones