Under destruction

We purchased our house in August. It was a foreclosure that sat empty for a few years or so. It needs a few cosmetic fix-ups but nothing major. One of the "selling points" of the house was the four tier deck in the back. I use the term loosely because whoever built it did a crummy job. We're talking;

• "boards not quite cut to the right length but oh well we'll use them anyway" kind of workmanship
• "not enough support so it's springier than a trampoline" kind of building (on the bright side, we didn't need to buy a tramp)
• "let's not get a permit so the city slapped a stop work order on the project so we'll leave it not quite done" kind of progress
• "let's make everyone coming in the back door step down to a little piece of concrete before stepping up to the back step" kind of design

You know it's bad when the tax assessor comes to add the deck onto the value of the house but after looking at it decides not to put it as an asset. :) (Okay, so I had to talk her into it, showing her it's flaws but she did agree not to add it to the tax value of our house.)

This winter the deck stayed snow covered most of the winter, the perfect place for an ice rink, so I decided I'd rather take the deck down and put a patio back there. Thankfully Hubby agreed.

I snapped some pictures of it on Saturday and we listed it on craigslist. By the end of the evening we had 9 people interested in it. Pretty impressive considering the area we live in.

Supposedly there is a guy coming on Wednesday to pick it up. Keeping our fingers crossed he'll actually show up. One of the "joys" of craigslist.

Being that Hubby's plate is so full, once again, this week, I offered to help him take it down. I mean, how hard can it be to take out a bunch of screws?

At 8:30 this morning, taking advantage of two kids still sleeping, I headed out armed with

a cordless drill, a bucket (not so I could puke at the job ahead of me but to put all the deck screws in), and my ever-trusty water bottle (complete with the mismatched cover).

I had a little helper who was quite pleased to hold my bucket for me.

I unscrewed and unscrewed, switching to my left hand when my right hand got tired. I wonder how the line "able to operate cordless drill with both right hand and left hand" would look on any future job resumes? ;) I'd bet the potential employer would be very impressed and I'd be hired on the spot!

There was a pause in the progress when I heard a sleepy "Mom?" from the door. My 4 yr old needed someone to make him some oatmeal.

All the fun and games ended when the drill ran out of battery. I got most of the screws out of the first two tiers. Sweet. It was so awesome to be out in the morning sunshine and fresh mountain air first thing this morning while actually accomplishing something.

The battery for the drill is now recharging. My plan is to get back out there for a bit while the kids are napping. In the meantime, it's the perfect temp for chasing my 4 yr old on his bike while pushing the girls in the stroller! In fact, he's just about biting my elbow off waiting for me to finish up here.

Later!