Sometimes the biggest improvement can come from destruction.

So we're replacing the deck in our backyard. It's not much of a deck -- a whopping two feet off of the ground, not high enough to need a railing. And structurally there's really not much wrong with it. But it's painted, not stained. And painted gray, at that. Add that to the heaps of biomass (pollen strands, bark, leaves, acorns, and the occasional branch or two) that the huge nearby oak tree dumps onto it throughout the year and you get a dirty deck.

"Clean it!" You say. "Powerwash the mother!" You insist. (You're getting a bit pushy, to tell the truth, but I'm not gonna say anything.) But if we powerwash it,

the paint will come off -- leaving thousands of little itty bitty paint flecks all over the place. So we are going to build a new deck in a couple of weeks, one with no paint.

But before that can happen, there's a deck in the way. So me and the circular saw spent some quality time this weekend dismantling the parts of the deck not directly in front of a door. I'll finished it the upcoming Saturday, but I wanted to get a start before then. I'll keep you posted on the progress, or regress -- either way.