We were busy this weekend. As some of you may have noticed in yesterday’s post, we’d already started clearing the liriope, weeds, and overgrown shrubs where our new deck will go. In the photo where John is pretending to be the deck, you can see the early stages of the cleanup.
You might remember we began with this scene of a crowded planting bed that needed attention.
The first step was calling Miss Utility to confirm it was safe to dig. We wanted to be certain we wouldn’t hit any underground electrical lines, water pipes, or other hazards before removing plants and preparing for a deck foundation. Thankfully, we got the all-clear.
After that, we transplanted the large bush that was hugging the house to the left side of the property where that area was crying out for some greenery. It looks a bit lonely now, but we consider it “better than nothing” — and in time we’ll add matching Gold Dust bushes along that side, like the ones that look great along the bedroom addition.
Next up: digging up the liriope (also known as monkey grass). Not our favorite job, but at least Burger was on hand to supervise. He gave us the unmistakable “glad that’s not my task” look while we worked.
With Clara napping inside and her baby monitor turned up by the door, it took a bit over an hour of digging for the area to transform from a crowded planting bed…
…to a much cleaner, more workable space.
We relocated the removed liriope to the side yard in hopes it will take root and fill in that area — it’s a tough, resilient groundcover so fingers crossed. Under the balcony we discovered some pallets that we’ll remove when we demo that structure later.
Clearing the plants was only part of the work. We also dismantled a curious arrangement of bricks, weeds, and yard ornaments that we’ve jokingly called “the AC shrine.”
The bricks were laid in an odd four-square pattern with a small stone pagoda in the center. We couldn’t figure out any practical purpose for it beyond using leftover bricks, and since it sat right in front of the air-conditioning unit, the nickname stuck.
As we dug up the bricks we didn’t find anything dramatic, but we did discover they were set two layers deep — a little reminder of the other times we’ve unearthed buried hardscaping around the yard. Around 160 bricks later, the area was cleared of that odd little installation.
You might notice a pile of pavers in the background — leftovers from the patio project. They’ve been stashed there for about a year and we have plans for them in the future, possibly when we convert the carport into a garage.
Several sweaty wheelbarrow loads later — each load moved to our brick stockpile next to the carport — the bed was finally free of bricks. A little more digging cleared most of the remaining weeds and debris, leaving a space that’s far more deck-ready than it was last weekend.
Next on the to-do list:
- Weigh the pros and cons of different decking materials and make a final choice (we’ll share more about this decision process when we decide).
- Get estimates for materials.
- Sort out the necessary permit.
And of course, once all that is in place, we’ll actually build the deck.
- Build a deck.
We also checked with our power company about the electrical meters on the side of the house to ensure they won’t interfere with deck placement. Some utilities require meters to be a specific height for easy reading, but our meter readers are willing to access the meters at a lower position, so there’s no obstacle. One of the meters is inactive and the other will sit about 2.5 feet above the bottom of the deck — which the utility says is serviceable. We plan to paint the area to help it blend in, like we did at our previous home.
Have you been clearing or digging any areas around your home lately? Did you uncover anything interesting while working in the yard? At our first house we once found an old milk bottle cap and even displayed it on our gallery wall as a reminder of the discovery.
Someone tell me you found a hidden box of money, gold bars, or a dinosaur bone — one can dream.
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 here.