Step 3 - Breakage Fees Are Extra (Assembly)

Now we're getting somewhere. That small pile of lumber that was delivered to our house contained a lot more boards than seems possible - at least when you're the one in charge of staining them all. It took me almost an entire weekend to get them all done. I'm not complaining. I just didn't expect it to take that long.

In the beginning, when I still had energy to take a picture.

Meanwhile, my husband and sons were busy doing...something. I still haven't quite figured out what it was, but it involved a lot of running around to get parts we didn't have and trying to get the ground prepared to put the boxes down. Oh, and it also involved this:

Oooh, sparkly!

See all of those tiny, shiny pieces? Those are what's left of one of our windows. If you look closely, you can see in each piece a dollar sign of one of the bills it's going to take to replace it. Honestly, when I walked into the kitchen and saw it, I barely blinked. These kinds of things are par for the course around here, and it was kind of fascinating to see how one small stone could completely shatter a piece of glass*. The guilty party shall remain unnamed (because marriages sometimes work better that way), but I think my husband's response sums it up pretty well: The garden just got a lot more expensive.

Moving on... The assembly goes pretty quickly once you have everything prepared. The first step and biggest hassle we had was putting the landscape fabric down. Do NOT attempt this on a windy day. Even a slight breeze can be enough to send a small child clinging desperately to the fabric on the ride of his life. I jest, but seriously, this is so much easier to do when the wind is completely dead (think horse latitudes).

Next to come were all of those boards I spent hours upon hours staining (Anyone feeling sorry for me yet? Anyone? Bueller??). With a bunch of screws and some braces, we now have the containers for our plants, and, if I use my imagination, a future lush tropical island getaway mini English-type garden that's not nearly so formal or so English-looking. Ok, so I'll scratch that idea, but realistically speaking, what we have will be a well-organized vegetable garden. It's what we were aiming for, so that goes in the 'win' column. Now all we have to do is fill it with soil.
 

*No one was injured during the making of This Shattered Window, except for, you know, the window.