The hot tub deck is almost done.
All of the deck boards are down, all the way to the house. Wrecks no longer stands at the bedroom door shaking, until he finally works up the nerve to jump the two foot span and land on the board that isn’t screwed down, shaking even more when he realizes that the ground is moving beneath him. For that, I’m a little sad, because that was pretty fun to watch.

When Duke first counted how many deck boards would be needed, he came up with 42. I was so excited, but I figured the number would change. There would be 41 or 43 or 42.25. But when all was said and done, 42 boards make up the walking surface of the deck. What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? A deck with a hot tub.
I promised some photos of the Rock Pipe, but I suppose I should explain what the Rock Pipe is first. As part of the deck construction project, Duke rerouted the downspouts under the deck and into a bubbler box in the ground on the other side. This resulted in a big white pipe that stuck out one side, which aggravated him. He decided it needed to be camouflaged, so he bought a tube of landscaping mortar and glued rocks all over the pipe.
Duke was insistent that I take more photos last night of the finished pipe. His exact words were “Can you please take a new picture of the rock pipe, all finished and nice? Not the in-progress one at night that is going to look all crazy….” Yes, darling. Less crazy. Mmmmmmhmmmm. So last night, I gave him my camera and allowed him to take the photos he wanted to see posted today. The first is my “crazy” photo, the second is his “not crazy” final product.
Rock Pipe in Progress:

Finished Rock Pipe:

See how that pipe blends right in? I’m getting nervous. I also got this via email from Duke yesterday: “I think I am going to create a rock sculpture of Wrecks, then you can make a post about how I glued rocks to your dog. I should glue rocks on the lid to the secret room too, so it will be extra secret. I am gonna start gluing rocks to everything. Weee!”
So the fence is really the only thing left, although there’s been quite a bit of progress on that in the last few days. Naked hot tub fun, coming soon! (To reality, not to the web. Sorry.)
Duke was in charge of picking the soundtrack for this post too (I should just give him his own name and password and let him post the construction updates himself), but I think I forgot which song he settled on already. He threw out so many different "rock" themed songs. I voted for "Rock Lobster", but as usual, I lost.
More photos right here.