Canada Jane » deck

A lovely new deck

admin — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:52:10 +0000

Now we are starting to get the spring weather we decided to make the most of our deck. We have three decks, but the main one leads from our living room and is extremely private and quite so is the one we use most often. We debated for a couple of weeks as to what to do with it. The wood that was used is the pressure treated pine and it was not built in the best way. We looked at putting on new rails and found some nice white plastic ones which we liked but they worked out very expensive. We then saw some black poles which we liked even more and decided to use these along with cedar for the deck etc.

So on Friday we purchased all the bits and pieces and hubby proceeded to remove the old deck and railings and replace with the cedar. I helped by holding things and passing stuff over and made rather a good apprentice I thought – not sure he felt the same! It has taken just two days with over 1,000 screws removed and replaced and we have a lovely new deck. We are soooo pleased with it, it looks brilliant.

Here are some before and after pics.

Looking out from the living room:

Before

After

The deck itself:

Before

After

The trouble is – the deck looks so nice it makes our other deck look bad. We now want to replace the other deck, but unfortunately this will have to wait as for some strange reason the DIY shops want paying for the items we use so we will have to save up a bit more!

Simply stunning snow scenes

admin — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:12:17 +0000

Last night it started snowing pretty heavily and it was the wet kind so it was sticking to the trees etc. This morning when we got up we had about four inches on the ground and all the trees in the garden and in the woodland were covered. It was really beautiful. Here are some pics.

Also, the night before we had the deer in the garden again. I managed to get a pic on one coming up very close to the deck.

New deck built

admin — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:36:01 +0000

This week we built a new deck outside (that is the royal we!) Now we have got rid of the eyesore of the pool we have a much better view of the back garden and the woodland behind it. It will be lovely to be able to sit outside and watch the wildlife.

Talking of wildlife we have see a couple of new bird species this week and many more chipmunks that keep chasing each other around the garden. They are also using the new deck to bury their nuts under!

Last night hubby was woken at 2.30am by something outside the bedroom window. He said it sounded like a cow pulling up the grass and then chewing on it. We can only assume it was a deer. We have seen them in the vicinity, but never on our land.

We are really sad and have a scope set up in the living room looking out of our picture window where we gaze for hours at the birds etc. We are now going to be even sadder as we have ordered a scope that has a camera incorporated in it. We often wish we could take a photo of what we see through the scope, now we will be able to.
I have added a photo of a fox we caught strolling across the garden last week. It looked a right sorry state, but guess it was a young animal. Apparently they can roam for hundreds of km in search of new territory.

Second power outage

admin — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 21:23:52 +0000

Got up Sunday morning and it was pouring of rain. We were going to continue to dismantle the deck that went around the pool, but couldn’t so decided to go into Kingston for a few bits we needed.

At around 9am, suddenly all the power went off with no warning. It was strange because there were no storms or lightening etc, just a bit of rain.

We waited for a hour or so to see if it came back on but nothing, so we went out.

When we got back from Kingston at around 3pm we had power back. No idea what happened there. Oh well, been in the house 6 weeks and have had our second outage!

Last night I was in bed reading at about 11.15 when I heard some scuffling outside. Hubby and I put the outside lights on and saw a coon on our upper deck helping himself to the bird feeder we have on there. He was completely flat out on his belly lying on the deck, he looked very funny. We have taken to bringing in the feeders overnight, but forgot this one – we won’t do that again. We shooed him away and took the feeder in. These little devils don’t miss a trick

We decide to get rid of the pool

admin — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:22:16 +0000

Haven’t been up to much during the week, but on Friday we made a decision to get rid of the above ground pool that came with the house.

When we were looking for a house, a pool was not something we actually wanted particularly, but as the house we liked had one, we weren’t too bothered. However, we have done nothing but test it, spend money on chemicals and never use it even though the temperatures have been in the 90’s. It is also in what we consider the wrong place in the garden as you almost fall over it going out the patio doors and it spoils the view of the wildlife.

So on Saturday morning we spent several hours dismantling it. We then considered what to do with it and in the end decided to simply put a notice at the roadside and see what happened. So, I wrote a notice out saying “free 24 x 12 ft pool”. The notice also said that some chemicals were included as were the covers etc and to collect from our driveway. We thought that maybe in a week or so someone might have it, otherwise we would have to dispose of it. The notice went up at 1.15pm Saturday afternoon.

We then went out for a couple of hours and when we returned at 3pm, we could see that the notice was missing and when we got down the drive, half of the pool stuff had gone, but half was still sitting there. When we got to the house the notice had been left at the front door with a note on it saying that the collector would be back later to get the rest of the pool and thank you. So, in less than 3 hours the pool had been claimed.

Sure enough a couple of hours later a red truck came down the drive and collected the rest of the stuff. So, that was our good deed for the day!

We will now put decking down to make a nice patio area and some planters to make a nice relaxing place to sit in the summer. We also want to add a hot tub, but that will have to wait until the sale of our UK house goes through, which should be in the next couple of months.