Slowly but surely...

... progress on the deck is moving along.

The new stairs are finally complete and it's a joy to not be clambering down the unattached, rickety temporary set we were using. It's especially nice for poor old Tessa who had a lot of trouble navigating the top step, which had about a 16" drop.

As I'd hoped, the space to the right of the stairway is the perfect spot for the barbecue. We just bought a new Weber charcoal grill with a propane start; Alan is a purist and refuses to use a gas barbecue, but I can't stand how long it takes to get the coals and electric starter set up, and then to actually get them lit and ready to grill. So this Weber was a good compromise. Not to mention that it has a handy, dandy table to set stuff down on while you're grilling and a tilt-out storage place for the charcoal so there's less running back and forth to the shed.

But best of all, our new patio furniture arrived just in time for the long weekend.

I looked long and hard for a sectional that would fit the space well (and didn't cost many thousands of dollars). A lot of the wicker sofas are built with very wide armrests and backs, and have an enormous footprint. Since our deck is only 14'x12' we couldn't afford monster furniture that would overpower the space. This piece is quite petite for the wicker genre, but at just under 11' fills the space along the side wall.

I'm not sure about the extra piece along the "L" as it's in front of the sliding glass door. We actually switched out a corner piece for that armless piece as I knew that an "L" would be big for the space. I hoped that this piece would look light enough, but I think that I may move it down onto the lower patio for seating there and just have a straight 4-seater sofa.

I also need to figure out what we're going to do for a coffee table out there. The table that matched this set was about 4' square and would have blocked the walkway to the stairs so it was a no go. We really need something long and narrow.

It didn't take long for Matthew to stake out his place on the deck. And he's still there two hours later, huddled under a blanket in the dark watching Netflix on the iPad. This deck may be more valuable than we ever imagined. It's too bad we're finishing up so late in the summer, but hopefully we'll have some warm fall weather that we can take advantage of!