Finally working on the outside!

So, after being here for about 7 months and spending the entire summer either inside the house or in the driveway (totes cool), we are finally getting some work done on the outside!

Just a reminder: in our area, RH doesn't do any landscaping or deck-building, so we have to handle that all on our own.

The husband took it upon himself to handle all the meetings and interviews with the several landscaping companies we talked to.  Thank God, I know I couldn't do all that.  But, he made some very good choices, and we finally decided on a deck company and a separate landscaping company to handle the lawn, softscapes, and patio.

The deck is first.  After signing (and paying the deposit) a few weeks ago, we were given a start date of September 12th.  Perfect!  Just enough time to get approval from the HOA.  Why did I do this, when it's possible that some of our neighbors did not?  Because I am a rule-follower, terrified that we would get into serious trouble if we didn't get approval first.  And, I am a glutton for punishment.  Luckily, the deck company already had the permit, so the HOA approval went through quickly, and in less than a full day.  Yay!  Great news, too, since the deck company moved up our start date to today!  Double yay!!

So, they've started the process, and I'm excited!  I know some of you bloggers are totally handy and did this yourselves (and I do envy you your awesome sense of satisfaction and pride in your own handmade product), but I knew there was no way I was going to be comfortable with the husband building a deck about 1.5 stories above the ground.  Power tools and ladders?  Nope, no thanks.  I don't need to live in the ER.  (ha ha, sorta.)  

The deck is going to be 14' x 20' and extend from the morning room door to the end of the house behind our family room.  We chose not to have it go around the morning room because we are planning on extending the patio in front of there, and didn't want to lose any natural light through those basement windows there.  We're going with Trex in Vintage Lantern, and with a black aluminum metal railing.  I'm hoping it'll look great - it was a difficult decision between the dark, thinner railings and the traditional white railings.  We knew the white ones would match the exterior trim perfectly, but we kinda wanted the darker railings to "disappear" when looking out the windows at the deck.  I love the view of the wooded area behind us so much that I didn't want to lose any of it.  We will lose some view, I know, but we are keeping the entire view from the morning room (another reason why we didn't continue the deck around it).

And now, the pictures!  There's only a few, but I'll try to keep you all updated as we go along this week.  The pics may be a bit grainy - lovely phone pics as usual.  The patio is to come later (hopefully early October), and of course I'll give a blow-by-blow account of that as well.