Deck ... sometimes seems like a naughty four letter word

So another installment of the epic story that is the word DECK. Sometimes I wonder if it was even worth it ... specially yesterday morning. I had taken the day off yesterday to make some "real progress". Let me back up to Thursday evening. Anyone who lives in the DesMoines area and was outside that evening would understand how miserable it was ... cold ... rainy ... just BLAH, especially if you were looking forward to an early start the next day working outside. Ya that was me, so I went to bed praying and blessing God that he would bless me with an eventful and prosperous day. Waking up the following morning to what was even more miserable than the night before. It was that soupy heavy misty rain and cold ... almost like being in the shower, but definately not as enjoyable. Did I say it was COLD? Hop back inside after taking the dog out to look at the radar/forecast for the day and it really doesnt look hopefull. So now I am really feeling bad, getting uber-crabby, but trying to be joyful and thankfull for the day that was given.

Im going to back up a week now and just mention another concern that was uncovered in our home. Two years ago or so my brother-inlaw and myself gutted our bathroom to the studs and remodeled. Now it wasnt that grand of a remodel but it was humbly nice, clean, and new. Moving forward two years to just a week ago ... our son Eli decided to pull back a portion of our shower surround while taking a bath. At first I was extremely upset, but after some investigation of what happened was extremely thankful because to our shock there was black mold feeding on drywall mud behind the surround. Evidently the caulk job wasnt enough and allowed moisture to get back behind the surround. So my mind is going to the Nth degree and thinking "OH FLIPPIN GREAT!! I am going to have to tear out the surround, replace drywall and a surround enclosure for the shower. This(assuming around $500) was definately not worked in to the budget along with the termites(roughly $1500).

So here is were it gets cool ... my dad(general contractor for 30 yrs) has been helping me with the deck project comes over to our house around 10.30am thinking that the rain would be done by that time. I get back from Menards and breakfast at BK with Eli(of which was a really cool time). It was a blast walking through Menards with Eli ... he kept commenting on how cool all of the man stuff in the man store was. :) So we get back and dad is starting to get things organized in his work van preparing for the day. Ya well the rain isnt letting up .. so we decide to go inside and wait it out .. hoping that it would be over in a few hours. So we sit down on the couch and the bathroom comes up in conversation and immediately out of dads mouth comes "lets take a look". After about 5 minutes of investigation dads wisdom of 30 yrs comes out in casual conversation of "well all this needs is a little cleanup, water sealant were the mold was, and re-caulked. So in a matter of a breath $500 in materials is reduced to <$10.

GOD IS GOOD!!! HALLELUJAH!!!

So I start scraping and cleaning out the area behind the surround that was moldy, slap a coat of Pro-Block water sealant on it. Let it dry ... still raining outside ... dad works his magic caulking abilities and rain stops. Im just going to stop again and say how awesome God is ... GOD IS GOOD!!! WOOT!

We poke our heads back outside and no rain. So on to the deck for the rest of the afternoon. Ya it was a pain working outside with all of the mud, but we got almost all of the framing and support joists done, just a few left for tomorrow and then we start laying deck boards, stairs, and hand-rail.

So all in all ... God has it under control ... ALWAYS. When it seems like junk is getting in the way its because the enemy is trying to get you focused on the junk and off of what should be the most important.

Which is ... Jesus

God is good ...