Yummy Salmon dinner

Last week Jeff went on a "once in a lifetime fishing trip."  He accompanied a coworker to Canada and spent the week fishing for Salmon.  This is Jeff's idea of Heaven.  Luckily for me he brought back over 40 pounds of fresh Salmon, and he's pretty good at cooking it for me too.

 

Here are just a couple pictures from his trip.

 

 

 

And here are some pictures of our super yummy dinner:

 

 

The filet of salmon was the thickest I had ever seen!

 

 

Jeff marinated the steak in a mixture of terryaki sauce and syrup (like the kind for pancakes) for about an hour.

 

 

Then he pan fired them on the stove.

 

 

He layed them over a bed of rice and add some roasted green beans (in the oven at 425 for 20-30 mins).

 

 

 

It was the best salmon (or any fish for that matter) that I had ever had.  It was cook perfectly and didn't have a hint of fishiness.  I can't wait for Jeff's next salmon creation!!!

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 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?

Croquet anyone?

Because now you can play some at our house with this set Jeff found at a garage sale this weekend.



Yes, its a little worn, er rustic or...vintage if you will. But we think it just makes playing croquet in your front yard even cooler.

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.

More front patio

This is how it looks today. My favorite part is the planter in the back. Jeff used old cinder blocks that he found in the backyard to build the planter, then topped it with some reclaimed 2x10s which he stained to match the fence. The cinder blocks were dirty and got stained when previous owner stained the back fence so consequently they look kinda cool. A few people have asked us what kind of tile we used. :)  This project is a perfect example of how thrifty Jeff is and how we are able to do so much on such a modest budget.  The chairs in the picture were hand-me-downs from Jeff's parents.  They originally were a forest green color, but Jeff spray painted them this nice steal gray to match the house. We still need to spruce up the wall to the right and maybe add some more potted plants, but its looking way better than it did before. See the in progress details here.

He cooks

Love comin home to a nice dinner after a long day at work. Yummy chicken Fajita's!

Face lift

Jeff painted half our house this weekend. What a difference.

Before:
                  
                 

After:

We still need to tackle the trim (yes, we are getting rid of the turquoise) and paint the remainder of the house, but I think this small change really made a big difference. Oh and if you noticed that in the after pictures, the flower bed looks a little bare, its because Jeff worked up a little somethin for that too this weekend. Details coming soon. Thanks Jeff.