Camara rose getting bigger

The Camara rose that Matt and Nicole got me (Barb) for Mother's Day last year handled the winter just fine all snug under a mound of leaves and a plastic flower pot. It's got lots of new growth and you can tell it is excited to bloom again this season.

Before-old siding and new deck spot

Here's a shot of the back of the house. The old brown siding is ugly, and you see the space where the old shed stood. This is the spot for the first new floating deck.

Mike, Matt and Nicole (sort of)

We built the 1st of two floating decks using the Dek-block system. Perfect for do-it-yourselfers. Matt and Nicole spent the weekend. We had just started on the walkways and Matt helped to layout some large paver stone. I was taking pics of how the stone were set because we had to remove them and re-lay. In snapping this shot of the stone, I almost got the 3 of them completely in the pic.

Octagon Deck hole-working on deck floor

Almost finished screwing down the deck boards on the 2nd floating deck. For this one we dug down quite a bit due to the grade of the yard. We only wanted a one step-up landing instead of two steps. Typically, when building these Dek-Block type decks you don't have to dig much at all. But we moved a LOT of dirt. We are reinforcing part of the grade with standard cement blocks. once this deck is completed, we'll add a second course of cement blocks to retain the natural grade. WOW, did we move dirt. We're almost done!

Oct

From middle gardens to new decks

Here's a look from the middle flower gardens back to the new decks and walkway

2 decks and walkway

A wider shot of the two decks and walkway. In the background you see the grill and the chiminea (covered in green). This area in front of the octogon deck will be the new home of our firepit.

2decks

Here are the two decks. Due to forecasted rain, we covered the graded dirt because we haven't put in the second course of cement blocks yet. Also, you still see a patch of grass between the walkway and the octogon deck. This is where the one step-up landing will be built to adjoin the octogon. Also, on 3 of the sides near the 3 trees you see we will build Michael's outdoor kitchen. We hope to start that in June.

Michael on the finished Octogon Deck

Here's Mike on the newst deck. To his left (your right) will be the outdoor kitchen. In front of him, you'll step down to the firepit area. Were almost done! :) With each wheelbarrow full of dirt, or next dek-block, or next deck board, Mike would encourage me saying, "We're almost done". We really do enjoy these projects.

Hockanum River beyond gardens and woods

This is the view from the back door, past the gardens, through the woods to the Hockanum River. If you look closely, you can see our green bench where we sit to overlook the river.

End of April-blooming bleeding hearts and archangel

Both bleeding heart plants and the archangel are blooming already this last week of April. (click on all of these pictures to enlarge them. Then use the back arrow to go back to the blog posts.)

Shed with star (Christmas gift from Curt)

One more shot of the shed we built last year. Curt gave us the star for a Christmas gift and it looks great!