It was 10pm last Friday night. Brad was hankering for a construction project. A few days earlier, he found a great deal on an outdoor fire table. He ordered it, and it was set to be delivered on Monday. But where would we put it? One Day Deck to the rescue!

First, we estimated how big the deck would need to be in order to fit the fire table and a few chairs. We settled on ten feet by ten feet. Next, Brad sketched out the plan and made a list of materials we'd need.

Game on. We have entered This Old House's Whole House Remodel Contest! The competition is fierce, but we have hope. All entries are due by tomorrow, and the winners should be announced by June 15. The winning submissions will be featured in the July issue of This Old House magazine. The grand prize is $5000 and a giant GMC pickup truck. Five second prizes of $1000 will also be awarded.

It's amazing what a good photographer can do. Check out these photos by Charlie Mayer. The only thing he can't do is straighten those frames on the wall! Note the cat food on the window sill in the shot over the railing from the second floor. The dog will eat it if it's not out of reach, which isn't difficult since Java's only about eight inches tall.

Photo by Charlie Mayer.

Here's a little preview of one of the photos Charlie took last Monday. I picked this one because, as you can see, this room needs a little help. From you. Please.

This is close to the view from my desk over on the office side of the attic. As you can see, we haven't really figured out how to use this other space yet.

Here's a fun project we did a while back. I've been a member of a postcard exchange program called Postcrossing for a few years (Guaranteed good mail in the mailbox - check 'em out!).

Brad's sister, Kerri, knew I loved getting postcards, so she sent us the best postcard ever.

Allow me to introduce you to PostCarden.