All Decked Out

I think the second best thing to watching the deer out the front windows is sitting on the back porch.  Living in NEWA, wood country - timber country, it goes without saying that the back porch would be made of wood.

At our last home in Nevada, we built the porches with exposed aggregate concrete.  They were very functional and looked good too!  But here in the woods, wood is the natural material to use.  Especially when you can buy it straight from the back porch of the lumber mill for a fraction of the cost you would pay at the big box lumber stores.

We bought a "unit" of kiln dried, select grade 2 x 12 Douglas Fir.  It was cut three days before we picked it up.  In order to buy direct, you have to be willing to purchase a 'unit' of lumber.  In this case 189 boards banded together and loaded onto our trailer.  The bonus you receive in doing it this way is that after we built our 10 foot by 34 foot raised deck for less than anticipated, we still have 75 boards left for our next project!
 
The other amazing part of this build was the fact that our 17 year old son got up every day and participated in the construction!  This may not amaze you at all, but some of you will know what I am talking about.  Daniel did an awesome job working with his dad and taking part, doing all the cutting of material and fitting the boards in place.  The two of them got the work done very quickly.

So now we have this gorgeous deck!  We have already enjoyed sitting out on it in the evenings and it was a welcome part of our 4th of July barbeque.  As an added bonus for the celebration of America's birthday, we had our first 'official' visitors since the house was erected.

My niece Nicole, her husband Kevin and their sons Carson (6) and Nathan (4) came to visit and spent three days with us.  We had a great visit.  We went on a hike with the kids, Carson enjoyed checking my game camera every day, we visited Canada and we toured the neighborhood.  Our neighbor up the road invited us for fireworks and Daniel got to help set off an awesome firework show about a mile up the road.  Don took Kevin on a quad ride over the mountain to Gardner Caves.  Needless to say, we had fun!

Carson at a beaver pond.

Now that we have a 'porch' to rest our weary bones after a day of work, play or relaxation, I think the house looks complete from the outside at least.  We still have a big stack of firewood sitting just past the deck due to the fact that our wood stove is so efficient and our insulation so incredible, it may take a while to watch it disappear.  We've talked of moving it to the soon to be built wood shed, but then we'd just have to move it back a little at a time when winter comes.  Oh the decisions to make!

Nicole not wanting to get her shoes wet.

Daniel

The Hager Family

View on our hike.

The coolest part is that now when you come to visit us, we have this wonderful place to sit outside in the shade and contemplate nature.  We are definitely all decked out!