We live in a house rented from the college. While it's a spacious little bungalow, it's been around for a while and needs more than it's fair share of repairs. For example, in the picture I posted in the fall, you can see where chunks of concrete have fallen out of the front steps. The winter did us no favors, and in the spring I asked maintenance to come patch up some holes. They decided it was unpatchable (which was really the right decision, since we were losing concrete in chunks the size of basketballs) and decided to replace it. Since the house is owned by the state, that meant putting out for bids, etc.

When the bid came back at half the value of the house, they went to plan B and built us a deck. They did a generally good job. My biggest complaint is that they put the railing spindles on upside down (with the points up, rising over the railing) such that it seems like we're living in a piked fortress. Also, it's quite big--the main part is about 15' x 20'--but as you can see from the pictures below, when you're coming up the drive, all you can see is deck, which also means that when someone comes up the drive, we can't see them from the window. The best part about the deck is that they wrapped it around the side of the house and connected it to our side porch. We use that side porch a lot, since it's covered and cool, and it's nice that they're all connected.

It took them about two weeks to do it--from coming in with the bulldozer to putting on the finishing touches--and it was all done without a single building permit.