All decked out

Let me just start out by saying that lounging around on a deck or patio was meant to be a part of my life.  Growing up, the deck at our house was the main location for any type of family or social gathering. Many parties were held on the deck, usually holding lots more people than it was built for.  My mom and I used to love sitting outside for no reason at all, and I have many memories of heading straight to the deck after school for sunbathing with my friends.  Even my house at college had a deck for Pete's sake!  (yes that was a lot of fun too) So, you can imagine the VOID in my life for the past TEN YEARS, since both houses we have owned have been DECK-DEPRIVED.  

Our first house had a large concrete driveway and parking area, which I often 'pretended' was a patio.  I did sit out there on a plastic chair once in a while, but I couldn't bring myself to buy proper furniture for it, since it really was.... well... a driveway.    Here's a picture of my bro and sis-in-law and Ben nine years ago enjoying our plastic chairs and driveway...

Our current house has absolutely nothing to offer as far as an outdoor seating area besides grass, grass and more grass (unless you would actually consider gravel a seating area, which I do not).  Last year at the end of the season, I finally broke down and bought some patio furniture, in the hopes that I would be able to set it on a proper surface sometime in the near future.  Since then I have once again been 'pretending' to have a patio, as seen in this picture below from Will's birthday...

So you can imagine my excitement last night as we headed over to the new house to put the patio furniture on the deck.  A real deck!  And while I did take a few minutes to oooh and ahhh over the fresh interior paint and light fixtures, I  really only had eyes for my new outdoor seating area!!!!  Look - there it is!  A deck AND patio!!!

Even though it started DOWN-POURING rain (of course) shortly after we got there, I was still able to enjoy the view and relish in the fulfillment of my cedar and concrete dreams.  Here's me taking shelter from the rain - but see how happy I am?  And can you see the patio furniture in the distance - see it? back there on the DECK?  

Now, one would guess the only thing left to do in light of the rain is to HEAD HOME.  booooo :-(   No Way!  This is the part where you head inside, crank the painter's radio and dance and play air guitar on top of ladders - OBVIOUSLY!!!!