Every house has its story. What's yours?

If you have ever read any of my previous blog posts you'll be familiar with the large backyard deck I built a couple of years ago. I completed it pretty swiftly, but it took me a couple of years to decide how I wanted to build a place for a cozy fire. Sweden can have some chilly evenings in the summer (not even going to mention spring and fall) and it's also a handy way to keep these damned mosquitoes at bay. Anyway, I'd left an open corner in the deck for just this purpose and my neighbor had lovingly welded a metal container for a fire pit for my birthday a couple years back, so I finally decided what I would do with my fire space.

We have a 10 month old poodle that has decided she likes to explore more than we would like her to explore and we have now had to build a fence with a gate to keep her in the backyard. Actually, we have been wanting to do something like this since we moved into the house, but hadn't gotten around to it until now. As luck would have it, I had just enough leftover pressure-treated lumber from my backyard deck project to cover the materials I would need for this project. I also had enough screws, cement, nails, oil, paint and hinges along with nearly enough brackets for the entire gate and fence. I had to buy 2 metal brackets, so the entire new cost for this project came out to be a tad over 2 dollars. Not bad, me thinks!

Well I had a long weekend to work on the deck and since I had to miss a fine party thrown by my bestest buddy in the whole wide world I forced myself to make the best of my time stuck at home....aww, poor Jimm!

Anyway, I continued with placing the floor which was rather uneventful, but still time consuming. Before I completed the flooring I had to grab my trusty sledge and knock down the old brick fireplace since I didn't want it to topple onto my precious new deck. After the fireplace destruction was completed I finished off the remaining few board and placed the last frame piece. 

Now I was able to begin working on the railings along the deck.