We were busy bees this weekend. As some of you noticed in yesterday’s post, we’d already begun clearing out the liriope, weeds, and overgrown bushes where our future deck will go.
We started with this:
Our first step was calling Miss Utility to make sure digging and future deck footings wouldn’t hit any underground utilities. We got the all-clear, so we transplanted the large bush that was hugging the side of the house to the left side yard. It looks a bit lonely at the moment, but it’s an improvement, and we’re hopeful it will thrive alongside the existing Gold Dust bushes that work well on the bedroom addition.
Next up: digging up liriope. Not our favorite chore, but at least Burger was on hand to supervise, giving his best “glad I’m not the one doing the digging” expression.
It took just over an hour of digging (Clara napped inside with a monitor by the door) to transform the space from this…
…to this.
We piled the removed monkey grass in the side yard, hoping some of it will take root; that stuff is notoriously hardy. Under the balcony there are a few pallets left that we’ll remove when we demo the balcony.
We also tackled what we’ve jokingly called “the AC shrine”: a puzzling arrangement of bricks, weeds, and lawn ornaments sitting in front of the air conditioner.
Its purpose was unclear—maybe someone tried to repurpose leftover bricks into a decorative layout—but the stone pagoda in the center gave it an almost ritualistic vibe, hence the name. Excavating revealed the bricks were set two layers deep, which brought back memories of other digging projects we’ve tackled.
After removing roughly 160 bricks, the area was cleared. You might notice a pile of paver stones in the background—leftovers from our patio project that we’ve been storing for the past year. We have plans for them someday, even if we haven’t decided exactly what yet.
We hauled wheelbarrow loads of bricks over to our stockpile near the carport. After a lot of sweat and effort, the area was free of bricks and much cleaner overall.
With a bit more digging, the space was mostly cleared of weeds too.
We still need to move the paver collection, demo the existing balcony, and remove the pallets it’s hiding, but the site is far more deck-ready than it was last weekend.
Next steps:
- Finish weighing pros and cons of different decking materials (we’ll share more once we choose)
- Get estimates on materials
- Handle the permit paperwork
And then, of course:
- Build a deck
We also called our power company to confirm the electrical meters won’t prevent a deck. Fortunately, our meters are fine: one is inactive, and the other will sit about 2.5′ above the bottom of the deck, which the utility says is accessible for occasional service. Since many readings are done remotely now, this isn’t a problem. We’ll paint anything necessary to help it blend in, like we did at our first house.
Have you been clearing or digging around your place recently? Did you uncover anything interesting? In one of our previous houses we found an old milk bottle cap, which we kept and hung on our gallery wall to remember the find.
Someone tell me they found a box of money, gold bars, or a dinosaur bone while digging. That would be something.
Psst—In one of our quickest giveaways ever, we hit 10,000 entries within six hours, so we’ve already announced this week’s winner in the giveaway post.