Patience is the Key to the Kingdom

It has been raining every day this week and there seems to be no letup for awhile. I called David this morning expecting to hear that nothing has happened since I was up last weekend. Here is what happened last week:

David made the north staircase on the front porch. I had banged my shin on the temporary stairs so many times that I have a scab, so I was glad to see a proper set of stairs. But because it won't stop raining I haven't been able to stain the treads and paint the risers. So it's au natural for the cedar stairs at the moment.

All the underframing for the deck out back by the patio doors has been installed on our brand new concrete footings.

And the brand new north side deck has all its underframing installed. I have to order the door and transom off the kitchen so I can enter this part of the deck from the church. It will be really cool because it's off the kitchen and the outdoor gas grill will be on this north deck making it easy to cook and grill and entertain at the same time.
The best part of the north side deck is that I get a Hudson River view 365 days a year.

So when David and I spoke today, he said that he and the crew have been working in and out of the raindrops and the east deck might be done by this weekend and they'll start the north deck next week. Kingdom come.

A Deck, A Deck, My Kingdom for a Deck!

I am so pleased about the transformation of the church interior. Here's a nice photo. There's still a lot to do and there is barely a stick of furniture but I still think it looks great.

This is what I saw when I went back to the patio doors.

Watch out! That step is a doozy. So the old deck has been completely removed. Then, our mason John, removed the crumbling brick in the back foundation on the north side (remember, I had replaced the front foundation in October of 2010) and made it all nice and dry and sturdy with cement block.

When I walked to the south side of the church, I saw this:

That little Bobcat is what helped clear that whole passageway, the length of the church. When I got closer to the machine, I saw that there were at least 6 different ways to seriously injure yourself while using it.

I made it a point to stay away from it. I'll leave Richard, our earthmover/landscaper, to it.

When I returned back to the church last weekend, David had started putting in the joists and underframing. Here's the beginnings of my new deck:

I had a fantastic job of moving this many bricks with that little wheelbarrow:

But at least they are off the front "lawn" and we might be able to start planting something soon.

Moving a ton of bricks was a drag but that evening's sky made it all worthwhile. Here's the view from what will be the deck on the north side of the house.

Hudson Valley. Yessssss.