New Deck!

I'm a year behind in actually cataloging our home improvement progress, but we got a new deck last summer!  Getting our plans approved with the county for a permit was all sorts of dramatic.  No two people in that building will tell you the same thing.  It's so frustrating.  But we finally got all the paperwork approved and rehired our favorite contractor to build it.  Construction started in May, 2013 with brand new footings.

The footings are GIGANTIC.  Our deck is going nowhere!  There was a little drama with one of the footings near our new addition foundation.  They jackhammered into the foundation to make the footing and Chris was terrified that they sent cracks into the new foundation.  We called our architect friend, who wasn't too concerned, but told us to contact an engineer to confirm that there was no damage.  The engineer had absolutely no concerns, so work continued!

We added a concrete retaining wall and pad outside our new storage area while we were at it.  As you can see, they had to take apart some of our fairly new patio because those footings weren't big enough.  We also had them dig a drainage ditch along the other side of our backyard to decrease the amount of swampiness that occurred after rain.