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As promised, here are more photos of today’s work.

What’s left? Well, just the really final details. I need to break out my palm sander to go over a few spots and I need to move the leftover wood. I could take it back to the store but I still have a small retaining wall to build on the right side of the house. There are three 4×4’s left and a couple of 2×6’s… probably slightly more than I need to do the job, but, frankly, the thought of going back to Lowe’s right now really doesn’t appeal to me.

Now it’s time to think about what’s next. Well, the wooden retaining wall, of course… and I’m thinking about putting a raised flower bed in front of the seating area. My original thought was to do it with stone, but I might just use the remaining wood. I need to spend an hour sitting out front sketching to see what idea really speaks to me.

I’m also planning another retaining wall on the left side of the driveway between my yard and the neighbor’s. Mike made a good point this afternoon: if I’m planning to get a Bobcat when it comes time to take out the current driveway, I should probably just wait till then because with the Bobcat, I can make easy work of widening the driveway in the direction of really useless piece of my yard.

As for the immediate future, next weekend my old roommate is coming for a weekend visit while his wife and child are in Florida. I’m really looking forward to having him here.

That’s it for the deck… of course until I have to start thinking about staining and sealing it.

UPDATE: I found some pictures I took the day I had the house inspected… I thought it be fun to do a little compare and contrast.

And here’s one from the day I closed along with a comparable angle from today:

And the coolest thing… Thursday was the one year anniversary of the day I closed my mortgage and moved in. That’s a hell of a lot of progress in the last year.

Before I got around to installing the mailbox, I had some catchup work to do on the deck. Mike had attached the posts with nails, but they still required lag bolts to hold them in place. After a run to Home Depot for a tool or two, I knocked that out first thing yesterday morning in between periodic breaks to avoid heat exhaustion due to the humidity.

As I posted yesterday, the most noticeable accomplishment for the weekend was the new mailbox. The post went in relatively easily. I dug the hole with post hole diggers and mixed the concrete in the hole. It took some finagling to the get the post mount into the concrete, but after some delicate persuasion, I got it in and plumbed. The installation instructions said to allow the concrete to cure for 24 hours, but there’s no way I was going to wait. I let it set up for about six or eight hours and then finished the installation. I’m very happy with the result. As for how the painting was done: I printed the design on to paper and then transfered the the design onto the mailbox by tracing over the print with carbon paper beneath it. I picked up some metallic copper paint at Michael’s, and then proceeded to fill in the transferred outline. The paint job isn’t as tight as I would have liked it, but it’s plenty fine and looks pretty good. As usual, I’ll be more critical of the paint than anyone else who sees it.

This afternoon I took a spin through Target’s seasonal clearance section with the hope of picking up a welcome mat to go on the deck, and ended up leaving with the mat and a nice set of solar lights as well. I had been seriously considering low voltage wired lighting, but figured with this was a cost effective compromise. Assuming the lights are as good as the reviews say, I’ll go back and pick up another set. The styling is what piqued my interest and I like the idea that they’re amber instead of the blue/white light from the usual LED solar lights. The set came with a spotlight that I’ve aimed at the mailbox for the time being.

I think the current plan is for Mike to come back Tuesday or Wednesday to finish up the deck. There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to tie up all the loose ends with one more trip. I’m really looking forward to the final result.

I mentioned that I’m planning to add some pizazz to the mailbox I intend to install this weekend. Well, here’s what I’m thinking…

Originally I was only planning to put the numbers on the box, but this is going to take a lot more work. If I can’t swing painting it myself, I might just have a sign maker cut it out of vinyl and go that route. It’s probable that it’ll take me all weekend just to get painted.

The font itself is called Dard Hunter after the Arts & Crafts era designer. I’ve tweaked it a little to make it work a little better. I really like the flourish on the r and the t.

And yes, I realize my house is hardly Arts & Crafts, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

Things I need Bryan to look into for me…

• Fix electrical outlet on side deck
• Install electrical outlet on front deck
• Install new circuit for computer equipment in the closet
• Check the kitchen circuit for any problems

It’s nice to have a card-carrying electrician for a brother.

I think I’ve lucked out… I was beginning to expect that it’d be a couple weeks before Mike would be able to come back to tie up the loose ends of the deck, but it looks like he’ll be coming over after work tomorrow to finish up.

For those wondering what I’m thinking in regards to the three large columns in the center of each side of the sitting area, here’s a drawing that should make things clear:

The cross piece at the top will be made of two pieces, one on the inside and one on the outside of the post. There’ll be a piece of pipe in between them on the ends to allow for hanging flower pots or similar items. I was joking with David that I should pull out my sewing machine and sew some castle-style pennants to hang from the cross arms as well.

He laughed, but I think he was just humoring me.