The next step in my boardwalk project is to prepare the sandbox for the 2 X 4 frame that will serve as the support for the deck, er, boardwalk. You can already see in this picture the start of the frame. What that means, unfortunately, is shoveling sand, and lots of it. Because I’m working with pre-defined borders – the brick bordering the west and south sides, and the patio on the east side – the goal is to have the boardwalk at the same height as the patio, but slightly below the bricks on the other side. I’m figuring that ultimately all the sand I shovel will ultimately be shoveled back in around the frame, but for now there’s not a whole lot I can do except place a tarp on the patio and, like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters of The Third Kind, create my own little mountain.

Once I’ve got enough sand out, I’ll be building my frame so I can really see just where all my boardwalk planks will go and how they will all fit in. I’ve already got a sneaking suspicion a little creativity is going to be needed to make the boardwalk planks will fit around the dimensions of the Tiki bar. But I’ll worry about that once I get the supporting frame complete.

I wll say this – I’m enjoying greatly the whole idea of designing a project and bringing it to fruition. Manual labor in the Arizona summer heat is quite the effort, and I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. There’s a certain satisfaction in attempting, for lack of a better term, manly stuff. Too bad I don’t have a pair of blue jeans that would hang low around my waist and show my a$$ crack when I’m bending over – not that would look really manly!! 🙂