Well, THAT didn't take long

Work started on our new deck a week ago Friday, the day I left for the beach. It was done almost before we knew it.

Here's what the backyard looked like the morning I left:


And here it is Monday afternoon, after the crew had left for the day. Jer, ever the engineer, is measuring to make sure they got the framing right:


By Wednesday afternoon (nobody showed up to work on Tuesday. Monday was St. Patrick's Day. Coincidence?) the main part of the deck was essentially laid:


Thursday was all about building the elevated portion surrounding the hot tub:


By Friday we had a privacy screen in place, and a removable hatch (which, with any luck, we won't need to use very often) in the step-up area, for access to the tub's internal workings:


By Saturday (yesterday), the deck was finished. One guy, Rob, essentially did it all, with assists for a few hours here and there. He was awesome. Here's a link to his employer. Before he left, he hosed down the deck so it glistened in the afternoon sun:


Jer and I had one more item to complete. We nailed some leftover lattice to the support structure we'd spec'ed for the lid to lean against when the hot tub's in use. We had a similar arrangement at Sea Ranch, and it worked great; you can just flip the lid over when you get in the tub and pull it back as you get out. The support as built looked a little like twin gallows; the lattice screening adds some solidity and overall coherence to the design:


Now all we have to do is stain the deck, hook up the electricity to the tub, fill it, heat it, and.... ahhhh....

Oh yeah, and redo the rest of the backyard to enhance the deck. That'll be my job.