When "Murphy" comes to call...AGAIN!

What is a father to do when his sons work alongside of him?
What else?
Be sure they also have their own tools!

My hubby drew these back decking plans himself

The day my hubby and I headed to the local municipal hall to apply for our back deck permit, it was then we found out our home had never been granted a final inspection.

After some uncertainty the information was confirmed and established our builder had the occupancy permit, but never completed the requirements to complete the final permit. A letter was sent to "the owners" of the property, us, announcing a fee fine for such a delay. It was then we alerted the builder and still now, after several months, we sit without this certification rendered complete.

Everything happens for a reason, and of that, I am sure. As our deck is now complete and the previous smaller temporary deck moved and installed elsewhere, it's been a waiting game all the way through.

Suddenly, without warning, and when our son and his wife were visiting from out of town, I took a look out the front door to find what all the commotion was about only to find our walkway to the front steps being dismantled and in complete disarray.

We don't have a final inspection yet.
This was one thing to be repaired. (ugh)

I gasped and became alarmed at their timing, not a word to announce this next step was to begin that day. There is an issue with the step allowance from the ground to the stairs above, though only on one side where the ground has settled beneath the rock. Up it all went, a large span of it at that, and all began to become...another "Murphy Moment".

Annoyed was a good word this day,
and totally unprepared for it all.

For all of the hassles we've endured since our move to this "never lived in before" almost two year old home, a small perk was offered to us. Yes, a perk!

We were offered free labour/materials walkway we were hoping to have installed along the back to our new deck staircase. The matching rock to the front stairway area had arrived on its skid, all awaited the timing of the re-installation of the front area before the men would move to the back to begin work on the new walk area.

Freebie materials awaiting installation

Everything looked promising, even when we couldn't help but laughing out loud for the continual "faux pas" times still happening around this new home.

Our family is used to rolling up our sleeves and performing difficult tasks. We work as a family. We also work hard, especially when a deadline awaits our tasks complete. To date, we've had many projects slated on the summer goal's sheet. Many are checked off. Some we needed to call in re-enforcement. So we hired out.

Nevertheless, during this particular timing, our personal tools were put away to spend time with family visiting from the west. Instead, other tools of the trade littered our property as there were strange men here taking my walkways apart, those who were hired by the builder and then, very shortly afterwards, our new back walkway was in progress. Swell!

And then as many, many MURPHYS were pulling our legs and offering us a rip roaring hysterical timing, it was discovered the men had snipped the telephone wiring. Not only was the telephone wiring many meters from where it should have been, the "Murphy moment" caught all by surprise. The line was now dead. Our home alarm was sounding its warning siren. The telephone company was called for an S.O.S. and the alarm company was also called to render the situation repair ahead.

As the men proceeded even with the telephone wiring fiasco in our midst, they won kudos for a terrific job very well done. Our new walkway looked superb! And the telephone wiring was buried along a more distant path, closer to where it was supposed to be in the first place.

Here's how far we've come! The first arrivals were in our driveway almost two months ago and the new deck footing areas were being dug out for the sono tubing. The small deck you see in the photo below was moved and another larger deck built in its place.

The deck scene above is no longer. Happily the new walkway runs up to our new deck now, and it seems to be coming together nicely.

The final walkway looked terrific to me, that is until the men came walking with a humble spirit (again) to the doorway. They hadn't realized the generator was propped up onto a cement slab, and now it was all exposed and looking fairly ugly to them. What to do? That part wasn't included in their freebie.

It all looked great from this end though, very great to me, so why sweat the small stuff?

Meet my rescue husband and his super idea of purchasing 24 rocks to repair the aesthetic look of the entire area. With older son in tow, older son was gifted with the wonderful task of carrying the rock and building even more muscle, and then the bags of cement. With great tutelage, the area was repaired and looking even more wonderful.

Now to fill the garden beds on either side and voila, another job checked off on the long, long list of summer to-dos!

My deck is now two-toned colored
and I just love it even more this way!

As for the original temporary decking that was moved and reinstalled on the other side of the house, my husband and son were able to paint the deck. After the fact, the gray tones weren't the greenish tones I had chosen. If there is one thing I'm having trouble getting used to living in this home, it would have to be the fact there is not any contrast coloring anywhere on the outside of the house. Everything is "natural" coloring, so bland and blah in the dead of winter, a little more lively in summer with the leaves on the trees, but something has been missing.

My hubby suggested we head to the paint store in search of another paint color to enhance what was already painted there. I'm happy to report, we have COLOR outside, even if it's just a bit of it. But just you wait! Next year when we paint the new larger deck after all the wood has cured, it will resonate with COLOR too, just like this deck does now.

As for Murphy? Well, he keeps popping his head in every once in a while just to keep shaking things up over here and fill the air with loads of laughter. Well maybe not at the time he visits, but later. We do laugh. Just not always at that very moment. Take two days from now for instance...the window company will be visiting to replace two windows with broken seals. One of those windows is the largest window with a huge transom archway above, and it must be replaced.

Uh boy...here we go again. Breathe baby breathe! LOL :-)