Addy is like a fish in the water!

The deck after it was sealed in late autumn of 2015. I used a clear seal.

  Mom enjoying the deck from just outside the kitchen.

Mom's view from the upper deck.

The work began May 2015.

 

 Mom oversees the construction, along with Rex.

 

 These drafts reflect two and half years of attempting to redesign the back of the house. The challenge was to bring the pool, the cedar fence, and the deck into a single unified whole. The above reflects an elevated deck and the removal of the tree.

Here, the deck allows for lower decks that gradually lead to the pool deck while saving the tree which creates shade but also privacy.

 This rough sketch reflects further refinements in an attempt to have the best of the earlier designs:

a deck leading out from the kitchen with a sitting area along with lower decks for privacy and entertaining around the pool.

 Mom visited and helped make the house feel more homey and gave it her own special touch, which is always nice!

To brighten this always very dark room she talked me into adding the rug, new lamp shades, pillows and we rotated the room around to make it more functional as it relates to the entire living room and house. 

Ma also helped to brighten the room!

I've been in this house two years. In that time the kitchen has gone from this...

...to buying this sink cabinet...

 

...and adding functional drawers...

 

...to topping it with a butcher block surface, staining it, plus adding corbels...

 ...to at last, this!

I added a matching cabinet to go under the television set. 

This isn't quite yet done (both above and below the TV). I'm thinking shelves for

wine glasses, cookbooks, and chachkis. 

 

After sealing the north side of the garage, an engineer came over and kindly wrote up the specs for an excavator to remove the dirt around my and my neighbor's garages.

 

Now, the water rushes between our two garages and around the back and into Sugar Creek. 

NO MORE FLOODED GARAGE!

 Some of the dirt was used to fill an empty cistern which was dangerous. The smashed the cistern

and then filled it in. The house is a wee bit more safe for doing this.

After removing three dump trucks of dirt it became clear I now had to build a retaining wall.

A so-called quick DIY job took three weeks!