A Little Bling for the Deck and How to Make the Perfect Tri-Tip

Meet Jeff's new girl...I mean grill.

But seriously, he is in love with his new grill.

He wont even use it though because he doesn't want to ruin the shiny newness.

Jeff got a great deal on this grill because it was the floor model. He has wanted a new grill for so long and he is in Heaven. 

To celebrate his new purchase, I want to share with you Jeff's recipe for the perfect tri-tip steak.  He makes a seriously good steak and if you've had it, you know. 

after you bring your trip-tip steak home....

1.pat it dry with paper towels

2. Create a spice rub

Jeff uses: Montreal Steak Seasoning with garlic and onion powder

3. Rub your rub on the steak

4. Throw it on a hot grill on high heat

5. Sear each side on high heat until the rub blackens

6. Turn heat to low

7. Cook until medium rare.  Don't be afraid of the pink!

8. Remove from grill to a cutting board

9. Let rest for 10 minutes

10. Slice (an electric knife helps!) and serve

11. Enjoy!

First party on the new deck!

We had a few friends over last night for our first party on the new deck.  It was a last minute get-together to celebrate the end of our indoor soccer season (even though it ended like 2 months ago).  It was a simple affair with pizza, salad, soda in our metal planters turned ice tubs, and root beer floats for dessert.  We discovered that Wesley, the boy who will eat nothing, loves pizza and ate an entire slice himself...big boy style.  That's just how he rolls.  We also discovered that the deck is a perfect party place and our farmhouse table worked perfectly!

oh, did you spot the sandbox?  More details to come...

For now, enjoy this video of wesley eating his pizza.

Deck Progress: What We Planted

The deck is pretty much done, yay!  Jeff is so excited.  We just need to put sand in the sandbox and build a cover for it.  Last week, Jeff planted some yummy plants in the deck planters.  Here is the run down:

And Jeff put the herbs he bought in this fun little table he built a while back.

Here is the {almost} finished deck

Deck Update: Planter, Stain, and Stairs

Jeff is almost done with the deck! This weekend he finished the new planters, stained the deck, and built stairs.  The only thing left is to create a sandbox on the other end of the deck and he's donezo!

Here's a few pictures of the planter.

it's huge!

Here's Jeff applying the stain.

All done!

Starting to build the stairs.

Here's what it looks like now.  See how much space we've gained?   Let the parties begin!

I'm an amazing helper

I couldn't resist adding these photos of me helping with the deck.  Ignore the white white legs and totally lack of appropriate working attire and just look at the level of concentration in my face.  This tool was really fun to use and super easy too.  (I can't lie though, my abs and hands were sore the next day....I'm soooo out of shape). 

And if you READ MY BLOG EVERY DAY (no, I'm not shouting) and I know you do, you'll remember that Jeff found the screw gun at a garage sale for only 30 bucks!  He wasn't even looking for it...I think it was a God thing :)

Did you notice the demise of our urban garden in this picture?  Its ok, as mentioned in the previous post, Jeff is working on a bigger and better garden, and we are already planning how we can reuse the wood from those guys in some cool art project.  Stay Tuned!

Deck progress

For those of you that doubted Jeff could build an entire deck by himself in one weekend, shame on you. He did it...well almost. He took a few extra days, and while its not completely done (still need to stain and build stairs) we do have a bonafide giant deck in our back yard. 

Ok, so Jeff started on Saturday by finishing the frame for the deck. 

Sunday was Easter, a day of rest (Wesley gave us a two hour nap!), and Jeff had to go into work for a few hours, so not much progress on Sunday.  But he did take Monday off and sent me this picture of his progress with his little helper.

When I got home from work, it looked something like this. 

So he enlisted my help and we worked till 9 pm when we laid the last board!

Thats a deck screw gun I'm holding.  It was seriously fun to use and helped the job go really fast.  If you are going to be laying a deck, this is the way to go.


Nukie loves the deck too!

Yesterday, Jeff rented a sander from the Dept and made the deck nice and smooth and ready for stain.

He also worked til 10 pm last night building giant raised planters that will go on one side of the deck. 

We originally were going to put planters on both sides, but it was a little more pricey than we thought.  So the new plan is to have the planter on one side, and on the other side, put in a sand box for Wesley and his friends to play in.  I am so excited that its coming together.  I am so proud and impressed with Jeff. Aren't you?

A trip to home depot

Yay! Jeff is going to build us a deck. I so excited. It's going to be awesome. A 16x24 deck that will allow us to utilize an otherwise useless area in our backyard. Jeff started this weekend by taking us to home depot and purchasing supplies for the frame. Wesley had a great time at the depot and Jeff was successful in getting lots of lumber.  Jeff is just in the beginning stages of this project but promised he'd finish it this weekend.  I am so excited, did I already say that?  So excited! It will be perfect for all the parties we have planned this summer!

But first, take a moment to oooo and ahhhh over the cutest picture ever of my Wesley boy.   Ooooooo Ahhhhh 



Ok, and now for the beginnings of an amazing deck.

This is actually just the lumber for half of the frame.  Jeff will be making several trips to home depot this weekend for the rest of the supplies.

This is what he accomplished last weekend.  Very early stages people.  Hopefully we all will be impressed when we see it next week.

Instead of doing major demolition, Jeff decided to just build the deck over the existing raised area. 

The finished project will look somewhat like this little drawing Jeff dreamed up in 2011.  He plans to build raised garden planters on either side of the deck to frame it in.