Jumbled Mess

Looks like a jumbled mess of boards in our back yard, right? 

Maybe right now it does, but by the time hubby is finished with these wooden slats, you won't believe they came from those pallets.

So what's he going to do with the jumbled mess?

After seven years of living in our house, we finally decided to add a cover to our deck. Here's a snapshot taken on a late September afternoon.

That flimsy umbrella doesn't do much to prevent the sun from continually beating down on the deck for most of the day, which means it really isn't pleasant for lounging except early mornings or late evenings. Plus, hubby wanted an outdoor space to house the smoker so he wouldn't have to lug it out of the garage every time he'd like to crank it up.

If that means smoked ribs more often, I'm all for that. :D

Well, you know how it goes. Suddenly, our plans mushroomed from just a cover to a total outdoor kitchen, complete with one of those fancy gas grill inserts, an outdoor sink and mini-fridge. 

We finally found a contractor with a bid that we could swallow, and we decided to go ahead. But the high price of the cover meant cutting costs on the outdoor kitchen. Even switching from the fancy gas grill insert to modifying a regular one to fit and chunking some of the components like the outdoor sink and mini-fridge, didn't help the cost too much. We decided to stick with the original plan. A cover and some type of bar/counter to store the smoker.

"Honey, you know, you could build something that would look just as nice as any of these. And it would be exactly what we wanted," I said, smiling sweetly.

His brows narrowed, and his head began a ferocious wag back and forth. He'd heard these exact words before. He doesn't consider himself a good woodworker. But I know better. Check out a couple of his DIY projects...

Along with my father, he built these two goodies, a desk and a cubby-holder:

my office

And this work bench for the garage, even including sliding drawers and pull-out organizers:

garage work bench

What do you think?For now this may be a jumbled mess of boards, but it won't be that way for long. I'll keep you posted. Bring on the ribs!