New Deck and Labeled Breaker Box

The back deck is done. It just needs to be decorated. P did a great job of mixing the new and old wood. It’s striped and looks intentional (and pretty cool). Once it seasons, I’ll stain it to match the two-tone gate. 

I had tall posts installed at the corners so that someday I can put a roof on it and screen it in (&*^#@! mosquitos!).

New supports, old stairs

Stripes

 

The deck looks so good, it draws attention to the dismal state of my back yard. 

Someday it will be leveled and sprinklers will be installed. That’s the only way I’ll keep anything alive back there. I think I’ll build a small raised kitchen garden on the left and either paint a (peacock) mural on the shed or put up a trellis to block the view from the house. Add a winding path, climbing rose bush near the gate and a small grassy area and I will be happy.  But I think I had better fix the cracks in the drywall inside the house first.

Yup. It's a breaker box. Exciting, no?

 On the 4^th of July, N came over and together we labeled the breaker box. You can tell from the floor plan that the outlets and light switches were added over time. We started by turning on all the lights, flipping a breaker switch and walking around to see what lights went out. We quickly learned it was much more efficient to stand next to the outlet (with a lamp plugged in) and flip each breaker switch until the light went out, then move onto the next outlet or light switch. A lamp plugged into the outlet worked much better than the current detector. We were getting false positives. Apparently there’s leftover juice in the outlet after the breaker switch is flipped—enough to light up the detector, but not enough to light a lamp.

Cute, yet useless helper

Directly below the breaker box. Um...I think maybe I should fix this...and paint my house,