In case you were wondering ...

Yes, I did finally finish the deck. Here's a look at it prior to my screwing in the outermost boards, the ones that overhang the stairs and outer edges.

I finished the deck, sealed it and everything, in August, and things have been relatively shut down around here since then. In September, I traveled on business to China for little more than a week, and then it took about 21 days for me to recover my sleeping/waking schedule to where I could get things done. By then, October was upon us, and the garden required a lot of cleanup.

Before we knew it, Thanksgiving was here, and while we were able to decorate the house, it's just been crazy around here.

I'm hoping that I'll get some time this winter to get back at finishing up the upstairs bathroom. Fortunately, the changes we'd made last winter (new faucets and sinks/counter) have served us well, to where we once again have his/her sinks in the morning and can get things done more efficiently. Also, the slower work pace has allowed me to rethink some of the ideas in there around the lighting that we have and the mirrors and the like. So we'll see what we'll do...maybe even less drastic, who knows?

Anyway, that's about all for now! A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours, and here's hoping that 2013 will give me more time to get some work done AND post on it!