THE DECK

This is our deck BEFORE:

We don't have any pictures of the whole old deck, because we never did anything on it because if you barely touched it you would get a sliver!
This is after Eric took it all apart:
and dug some holes to pour concrete for the new footings
I didn't get a picture of him mixing the cement! It was hard work, and the girls were just fascinated watching him. Here is one of four cement "piers".
The piers with posts attached
The next step:

And then we didn't take any more pictures until he had finished putting all the boards on the top and he was working on the stairs. Oh yeah, and we used Trex, the composite wood stuff that we will never get slivers on! It is WONDERFUL and SO worth the extra cost.
The girls on their new sweet deck!! They love to run around and around in circles on it.
YAY!! I am so proud of my amazing husband. he built this in a little over a month, almost completely by himself. He still has to attach the finishing boards on the sides and maybe piece some boards together for the fronts of the stairs, but he's essentially done and taking a break. I loved watching him work and figure things out and do a really good job.

The stairs were tricky, you can see the cement patio slopes down and he wanted the stairs to be level. It looks like he did it! Anyway, we LOVE our new deck and will enjoy it for many years to come. And we love to be able to use our back door again.
For his birthday weekend Eric just wanted to work on the deck, that's all! So I ran a half marathon that Saturday morning, (and did GREAT and loved it!) and then he worked and worked until the stairs were done that evening. We didn't even go out to dinner! But he was happy, so I was happy. Then on his birthday, Sunday, he was rewarded with this amazing ice cream cake made by ME.
Seven layers of yummyness, and it was a LOT easier than I thought it would be to make! it probably only took me 10 minutes longer than making the normal layer cakes I've been making. Eric's family always gets ice cream cakes and so I thought it would be fun to try to make one. Mmm.... Happy birthday Eric!!