Starting to Wrap Up the Courtyard Build - most of the decking is down, and another 3,000 pounds of gravel

Since my last update, I am nearly complete with building decking around the base of Maynard, and I have most of the rest of the decking attached, although I don't have all the screws in.  Some boards are changing shape as they dry out (no, I didn't let all the treated lumber dry completely after purchase).

I also hauled in a couple loads of gravel and then small river rocks.  Another 3.,000 pounds shoveled, wheel-barrowed, dumped, and raked out.  I also placed some slate for a walking path.

And you'll notice that I've added some outdoor furniture and decorations. We've got sort of a 1970s vibe going.  The Homecrest chairs you may recall from a post I made a couple summers ago - I scooped those all up at a local estate sale. 

The ball is a cool thing SWMBO found and gave to me.  Over the winter it was painted red, but the silver gives it better contrast against the redwood fencing, and the idea to bend a pole to hang it came from photos I've seen of similar indoor lamps prevalent in the 1970s.

I had the window-frame mirror already, just changed the frame color to white and hung it on the fence.

This metal art is something I acquired off ebay a few years ago and  tried using inside, but since it's aluminum, it should hold up well outdoors, and I like the way it dresses up the fence.

Still on the punch list, I need to trim some decking, fix some saggy boards, and tighten a lot of screws.  I plan to stain the deck over the next few weeks, and if you look around the edges, you can see I have a lot of tidying up yet to do.