July was hot hot hot

It's hot in North Carolina, and I didn't do much training. Had one swim race that was awesome but that was about it.

Swim: 25,150 yards, 1 race
Bike: 0
Run: 0
Strength: 0
Yoga: once!

Just when I thought I couldn't do less than I did in June, July hits and I swim 6000 yards less. A buddy at work just bought his first tri bike, so I'm actually thinking about riding some again. And soon I think another work friend and I will do the 5k ePostal swim and maybe head down to Wilmington for Swim the Loop, a 3.5 mile open water race.

So what else was I doing instead of flexing any kind of athletic muscle? Well from June's recap, the garden was growing, I finished building my first boat, and we cut a massive hole in the wall and installed a door.

So in July the garden mostly died from the heat and we built a massive deck on the other side of that new door!

The deck! with one wall of a screened in porch

Front view (of the back of the house)

far side angle

stairs from level 2 to level 3

Handrail is up! Lots of design work in there

Happy deck builders

face painting 4th of july

already enjoying the new deck!

The deck we built entirely over the 4th of July holiday. I had a couple of days off from work. The entire build is detailed on my woodworking blog so I'll spare you the gory details here. There's three levels, and asymmetrical design, and it came out better than we drew it on paper. We absolutely love it and are enjoying it despite the heat. 

I had a birthday!

42 is cheesecake, right?

Got the rest of the walls up on the porch

Ella's first day of 7th grade

First day of 5th grade!

We love having the kids in a year-round school. They started back after the July 4th week. We would much rather have them in the air-conditioned school while it's too hot to do anything outside than staying in bed all summer. They get the whole month of september out, so we'll go do some summer fun stuff then.

Tiki guy made the deck and got a Sideshow Bob fern haircut

Ella wanted me to try the Toe of Satan. I couldn't keep this hot candy in my mouth, it was too hot. and nothing is too hot for me.

There's a roof going up!

Happy with the framing and handrail in the porch

Interior trim - top

Interior trim - bottom

Evil Genius got me a mug that looks like beer

Finished the screened in porch! It's so much fun

I did eventually attach the door

adding deck furniture

with my love

First time in 7 years I've been able to grill!

We got a fire pit! Making s'mores - the kids love it.

fun times with the kiddos

App State grill cover

We put a sky chair in the porch! If you've never used a hammock chair you don't know what you're missing

I took a sailing class!

I love the Doctor Who Intoxicate Dalek shirt

Laid some brick pavers to extend a theme

then built some stairs

I am actually going to have to rebuild those stairs, they are cut wrong. But they will get us by for now. The sailing class was awesome, I really want to build a sailboat when I'm ready to step up to something larger. The class was a blast, can't wait to get back on the water now!

Overall, this July didn't suck as much as in past years. Maybe August won't be so bad either.