Deck Work

Spring was slow to arrive here in northern Virginia. In March we had a few days in the 60s and maybe even 70. For spring break, we headed down to Florida and before we left, the morning temperatures were pretty cold. I felt fairly confident that when we returned, mornings in the 30s would be a thing of the past. We did have a few spring-like days, but then it cooled again, and the mornings were cold. As I glance at the upcoming forecast, tomorrow and Friday mornings both have lows in the 30s. In late April.

Ever since we moved into this house three years ago, I look forward to spring. It means we can start using our deck again. We have a large deck that looks over our backyard and into the park that our house backs up to. In the spring of 2020, we obtained some deck furniture, and a 10×10 gazebo for shade and protection from mosquitos in the summer. Since then, we’ve added a table and chairs for eating, and grill for grilling.

I love our deck. After my morning walk, I’ll take my breakfast out on the deck and go through rest of the newspapers that I didn’t finish when I woke up. On Sunday, I’ll read the actual newspapers out there.

Reading the Sunday papers on the deck before I had the gazebo setup this past weekend.
Reading the Sunday papers on the deck before I had the gazebo setup this past weekend.

Sometime, I’ll take my work laptop onto the desk to work. I like reading on the deck. When the weather is particularly good, I’ll even nap on the deck. I’ll head into the gazebo and lay on the couch, close my eyes and drift off to the sounds of birds and insects.

The mosquito netting and cover for the gazebo was somewhat flimsy. It lasted us the 2020 season and 2021. When I took it down last fall, I saw that it was riddled with rips and holes. I tried to find a replacement from the manufacturer, but they only seemed to sell the full kit. So I searched around and found place that sells 10×10 replacement covers and sidings for gazebos. I ordered it and it arrived today.

It worked! It fit our gazebo just fine and had several improvements over the previous version. It took me a little while to get it setup. I picked a fairly windy day to do it, but the deck furniture is now in place, the gazebo is up, and I am hopeful that the spring temperatures will start to feel like spring for a while, before they shift to summer heat and humidity.

Inside the gazebo
Inside the gazebo

I’m looking forward to making use of the deck.

Written on April 27, 2022.

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