All decked out

This is a picture of the corner of our massive back deck. In the last couple of months it has decided to spontaneously fall apart. Not only are all the boards popping up, but the support structure underneath seems to be disintegrating. To walk across it is a little like a walking across a trampoline for a small person and for a large person it’s like participating in some kind of Japanese TV show where you may be plunged through the boards to certain injury at any moment.

We had a guy come out to give us a quote for the replacement last week. He hummed and haahed and told us that it isn’t going to be cheap and hummed and haahed some more until we asked for a rough guesstimate to which he replied “well, a job like this can keep changing as we go, but I would say around $15,000.”

…

…

“$15,000?!!!”

Hear the sounds of our jaws dropping, see our skin pale and start to perspire. Watch as we reel and gag.

When it was clear that Big-P and I are going to find it very difficult to spend $15,000 on a replacement deck, the builder started to jump up and down on the worse bits to demonstrate just how dangerous the existing deck is and just how dire a replacement is needed. He was not a small gentleman and I was seriously worried that he was going to go straight through and we would feel obligated to him to not only pay damages but hire him to build something close to a sea-going vessel all around the back of our house.

So he left promising to call us with an official quote. And he hasn’t – I guess we looked like a lost cause. And now? Of course we will get at least two other quotes. Presuming they all end up in the same realm, we are thinking it might be easier to remove the deck and reclaim the garden. This is a a daunting yet inspiring prospect. Actually it’s complete madness I’m sure, but surely cheaper than paying someone to replace the deck, and surely less harrowing than attempting to build a deck ourselves.

Surely!

W.I.P. Friday – Quilted doll’s dress

I have been hand quilting the little dress for Lily’s doll and I love doing it. I am not sure if I am doing it correctly but it seems to be working ok. And the binding is a little wonky but the colours work well with the Denyse Schmidt print so I’m happy. Inside is a lovely buttery yellow flannel which is a pleasure to catch a glimpse of.

Tomorrow we put up the christmas tree. We are going to pick up my Grandmother (and some brioche from the local french bakery) in the morning and bring her back so she can sit at the couch and laugh at us attempting to put all the branches of our fake tree in the right spots. I am looking forward to it – there is nothing nicer than opening up the ornament box and rediscovering all the lovely little things. Now… if only I can remember where I stashed the box. I swore I put it under the house but Big-P assures me that it’s not there. Hmmm.

November 30, 2006

It’s the last day of November and I managed to post every day of the month. Most of the posts even seemed quite cheery.

In the end I quite enjoyed it, most days anyway. I feel like it has got me back into the swing of it all again which I really needed to do after Lily’s arrival and my blogging hit an all time low (four posts in two months!?). It’s also got me thinking about my craft pursuits again, and taking more photos and thinking about writing a book – so that’s all a wonderful bi-product of a seemingly daunting task.

And what about December? I would love to keep up this pace but school holidays descend upon us as does Christmas madness and in truth it would be lovely to have some evenings where there is absolutely nothing that needs doing after 8pm except cleaning my teeth so I am not going to set myself any crazy tasks.

But there you go. Whoo-hoo! And now I must away because there is an advent calendar which needs making.

Wistful

Wow – I love Wists! I use it to keep track of great kids’ finds for Kiddleylinks (which I mark private so I can reveal them later!) – but I can see that it will be useful to keep track of other beautiful things I find on the web. I just started this evening but I know I won’t be able to stop adding to it – it’s like a giant wishlist and gallery rolled into one. Mmmm.