With no pleasure travel on the horizon in the immediate future, we decided to focus our time and money on a nice outdoor space instead, which we had long been considering. This is the year!
With the immeasurable help of Jane's brother, we built a new deck....once the wood we ordered finally arrived. Pressure -treated lumber was in very high demand this summer! We also ordered a gazebo pavilion kit from Costco, once we knew the long-awaited wood would finally arrive.
The stars aligned as the wood and pavilion kit arrived the same week as a ridiculous five-day stretch of unseasonably gorgeous weather for mid-November. Glancing ahead at the forecast, I had taken the week off work....and everything worked out perfectly. We even had our AC "guy" come by a few days before and move the AC out of the way to make room for the deck expansion.
We worked each day until dark, then migrated to the man-garage to assemble roof pieces in conveyor-belt fashion under artificial light and on makeshift tables John constructed out of pallets and two-by-fours....before relaxing with a beer (or two) and a sore foot (or two).
After four very long days, the deck was built and the pavilion erected, leaving only some small finishing tasks to be addressed at our leisure. Jane kept us well-fed and caffeinated throughout the "broject", and was called upon periodically for critical Supervisory decisions.
I also managed to injure my thumb in bizarre fashion - reaching into an outdoor water bowl to remove some "gunk", a jolt of pain shot immediately up my entire arm and my thumb began to throb and swell within seconds. A tiny stinger or something had made a very small pinhole in my cuticle....and over the next few days the swelling and discolouration continued to worsen AND spread up my thumb. A visit to the walk-in clinic got me some cream to tide me over....then my own doctor put me on antibiotics.
Not sure what insidious evil lurks in feline water bowl gunk....but beware!
(apologies for the reverse order below - the new interface seems to default to posting newest photo first instead of the good old chronological uploads I used to enjoy)
The end result = covered outdoor theatre!
Somebody please.....Feed Phil!
The new deck takes shape!
Finishing touches for the pavilion
Preparing to raise the roof!
Finishing off the frame
The fruits of late night roof assembly in the man-garage
Ready to receive....a pavilion!
Start of a productive Day Three
How my thumb looked a few days after "The Incident"
A few minutes afterwards - see tiny puncture in middle of cuticle
I just reached in this bowl to fish out the gunk!
Make some time for a little more parging.....
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