In which we try to complete the list of “Things to do before the baby is born”
Posted by Isabel on July 27th, 2010We have two lists on our kitchen counter. The first list’s heading says, “The Summer of Fun” and the second list’s heading says, “Things to do before the baby is born”. The lists are of equal importance. We’ve been crossing things off both lists like crazy these last few weeks.
The main thing that we’d like to get done before I pop out this kid is to finish our back deck. We’ve spent the last few summers trying to get our yard in order so that we can, at some point, actually enjoy it. We figure this might be our last summer for a while to work on it hard core. We pretty much finished up the front yard earlier this summer and have been focused on our back yard. And by “back yard”, I totally mean “the dirt hill behind our house that will never be considered a yard!”
After much thought we decided the best (and possibly only) way to utilize the mound of dirt behind our house would be to turn it into one huge deck with multiple levels. Yep, our back yard won’t have a single blade of grass. This is actually a great plan because we’ll be able to throw send the boys out on the deck to play and we won’t have to worry about them. Especially once the fence in finished.
If you’re new to my life blog then you might not know that The King is the epitome of a hard worker. He lives for work. He thrives on work. He, pretty much, just basically enjoys hard labor.
(Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one confused at how he and I wound up together.)
What I’m saying is that The King has planned to do all of this work himself. You know, while working a full time job, being a husband and father and donating his time to our church. This whole deck business is huge and The King can’t physically do all of it in the amount of time we have left.
Enter me. His pregnant wife. (And maybe some others.)
The plan for the deck is to have it be three levels. The first level starting at our back door and the subsequent levels going up to the back alley. The first level of deck was completed last summer, as well as the framing for the second level. Each level is to be divided by a gabion wall. (Have you ever seen a gabion? They are pretty cool and you should check them out.) Anyway, I think the average person hires someone to come in and put together the wire gabion baskets and then hires someone else to come in with a backhoe and fill each basket with rocks.
We’re not “average”.
And so The King and I (and a few friends, who we’ve happily paid) have spent the last few months taking rocks from a pile of rocks we bought and had delivered and dumping them into the gabions.

By just looking at the gabions you might not think they have that many rocks in them. If you think that…YOU WOULD BE WRONG.
There are a lot of darn rocks. Lots and lots.
Take my word for it.
At this point in the project we were all “we should just look into paying someone to finish the second level.” We hemmed and hawed and finally decided to fork over the cash to pay someone else to do something that we could do, but just didn’t have the time to do.
The second level was finished in two days. It would have taken The King a few weeks of evening and Saturday work to get it done.
It might have been the best money we’ve ever spent. It looks beautiful!

Level three will be a flat area filled with gravel for the time being. Next summer The King will build a shed and a sauna with a shower area. (I know you want to come and stay at my house, right?!) The third level will have to wait until next summer. Sad, but true.
Another thing of our list of “Things to do before the baby is born” is for me to sand down all of our teak deck furniture (that we bought a few years ago AT A SUPER DISCOUNT) and have The King restain it (I probably shouldn’t be messing with stain and paint at this point in my life).
It isn’t the fastest task, but it’s going good. So far I’ve sanded two chairs and one chaise lounge chair (and half of the other).

Our new table umbrella was delivered last week (thanks Overstock.com) and we’ve managed to eat dinner outside EVERY SINGLE NIGHT since its arrival.

The fence should be going up soon. SOON! The pile of unused wood will be sold online soon. SOON! And the deck will be finished. FINISHED!
Then we’ll be able to cross it off the list of “Things to do before the baby is born”.
Speaking of the list, I crossed something else off the list on Sunday evening:
“finish boys room”
Yep, the wall art has been updated (with super cute pictures of old pirate ships) and….

…new curtains have been sewed by ME, WHO DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO SEW.
(The “before” pic of the fabric and the existing sheer curtain that will go behind the new curtains.)

And the “after” of the curtains, all sewn and hung up on the rod.

What was The King doing while I was cutting fabric and cursing my sewing machine?
He was working on crossing something off the “Summer of Fun” list:
“Climb to the VERY TIP OF MT. RAINIER“
(He’s been training to do this for a while.)
Thankfully he (and the guys he climbed with) was safe.
And thankfully I didn’t go into labor while he was gone, thus cursing me to naming my child something like “Rainier” or “Muir” in honor of giving birth while my husband was on the mountain.
Next up; crossing even more things off the “Summer of Fun” list!













