Weekend Warriors...

Okay so actually it was more like "warrior". My baby brother Ben came up to help us build a deck. Aric and I were planning on taking on the project ourselves so on Tuesday I called Ben (he builds houses for a living) to get some advice and this is how our conversation went...
Me- Hey Benny got a minute?
B- Sure what's up?
Me- Well Aric and I are going to build a deck and I wanted to see if I could send you some pictures and tell us how we should do the foundation.
B- Who's building this thing?
Me- Me and Aric.
B- How big is it going to be?
Me- Oh...I don't know, like 14 ft x 20ft.
B- Ummm...let me see what I am doing this weekend. I want my nieces and nephew safe. Send me some pictures and I'll call you later.
On Thursday I call Ben and he says he will be at my house later that night. (He lives 3+ hours away)

****SIDE STORY****

Ben has been dealing with a crazy tooth issue. He lost a filling...the tooth got infected. His regular dentist couldn't fix it so he was waiting to get into a specialist who could do the very complicated root canal. He got the call that he could get in on Thursday at 3pm. I told him that he didn't have to come up but he insisted that he would be fine. So on Thursday night I get a call at 9pm saying that he was an hour away and that he was in pretty bad pain so he had to stop to eat something and take some pain meds. He told me that he wouldn't be able to drive for a couple of hours after he took the meds so he would be late. Well I went to bed at 12:30am...no Ben. When we woke up at 7am there was still no Ben and he wasn't answering my calls or texts. I started freaking out. I called the family and the state police. After about an hour of praying and worrying that he was dead in a ditch, he finally called. He had taken two vicatin and they knocked him out. He stayed in a hotel and his phone wasn't working. Seriously...if I wasn't so happy he was alive I would have strangled him with my bare hands when he finally got to my house....

****BACK TO STORY****

So after Ben and Aric wheeled and dealed they got all the materials purchased and delivered to the house at around 4pm.

The back of my house started out looking like this...

Then Ben started working his magic...

 

Oh and Aric helped too...

When it was all said and done, it looked like this...

(Ignore the melted siding...that would be the evidence of  grilling incident that could have been gotten us on Dateline)

Clearly our deck is not completely done...Aric and I will have a fun day tomorrow full of drilling and rail installing. Ben did the hard work and I couldn't be any more thrilled or grateful. He worked for meat (steak & ribs), Dr. Pepper and a ticket to the Shock game with A and the girls.

Seriously, there is NO WAY in this world we could have built this deck. Even with all of our handiness A and I would not have been able to pull this one off. There is a limit to our skills. I am so blessed to have a brother who would sacrifice his holiday weekend and build me a deck while recovering from a ROOT CANAL!!!!! Honestly, I feel so loved. Thanks Benny! I love you!