This Deck Has Got To Go

This is a view of the back yard. You can see a section of the old fence, that surrounded the property, running behind the deck. The thing was literally held together with bailing wire in some places, and metal stakes to support the decaying posts. We knew that it wouldn' t make it through another winter so, we had the lot surveyed in preparation for putting in a chain-link fence. The survey showed us that we would have only a foot clearance from the back edge of the deck to the proposed fence so, we decided to tear the deck completely out. It was old and falling apart by that time anyway. Once we got into the project of dismantling the deck we discovered what held the Jacuzzi in place. You can see the cover for it in the center of the deck so you know how far out from the house it stood. Well, whoever put the thing in had used a ton of concrete, rocks, broken bricks, even bathroom tile, and any other debris that they could find to create a retaining wall, of sorts, to keep the thing in place. We knew we would need a jackhammer to bust it out, and we couldn't afford to do that now, and put in a chain-link fence. We realized that after hauling off the deck, and the cut up Jacuzzi we were going to be left with this hideous concrete eyesore for awhile. It turned out to be 7 years until we finally could pay to have it broken out.

At this point I might also mention that I had spent several weeks that spring raking up pine needles and yard debris. One of the first notifications that we received after moving in came from the fire department informing us that the yard was to be cleared of debris down to the dirt. There was at least a 6-inch thick layer of junk around the entire yard. The oposite side of the yard had wild blackberry bushes gone mad everywhere and a poinsetta "bush" that was five feet high in the middle of the mess. It took me the better part of a week to prune, cut, and haul all of that out. I worked so hard that first year.

All that hard work paid off and as you can see on this side of the yard all of the mess is gone. That huge blue tarp covered monstrosity was no longer there because we burned a lot of the wood that was under it that first winter, and what was left we put in a stacker. After I had raked up all the junk I made rock pathways, and made a planter underneath the cypress tree that you can see on the left, the irony of it all was that I did all that work and most of the yard wasn't our land. Go figure!