the ocean

This week our we had our entire garage deck removed and rebuilt. As of last Saturday, we genuinely did not even know this was going to happen. We had the project scheduled for early August. But our contractor had an opening and emailed us and next thing we knew, a couple of truckloads worth of rotting lumber and dying plants were being ripped out of our roof. 

Of course, this was not something we anticipated doing so relatively soon after buying the house, but it turned out that the large built-in planters on the roof were rotting below the surface, causing the entire apparatus to start to collapse in on itself and, perhaps worse, attracting a rather large colony of rats. (And yes, we hired rat hit men, who "took care of" this, but deemed it a problem capable of repetition yet evading review.) So we got all new everything, this time with Trex instead of wood, so allegedly we will have very little upkeep to do.

Given the nightmare stories I've heard about construction in Chicago, I assumed our contractor would disappear after ripping everything out and leave us with a bare roof for several years or until we made extortionate payments, but that did not happen. By Tuesday the lower deck was replaced. By Thursday the upper deck was replaced. And by Friday we had the pergola and the entire project was done. Part of me feels like we've maybe used up our contractor karma and the next one will shoot us in the face or something. But part of me also thinks that would probably we worth it.

Anyway, a successful project, for once. And now it's cloudy and hot, such that I have no desire to be out there. But I COULD be out there, which is a lovely feeling in and of itself.