Digging days are long gone

Last spring we had a deck added to our house.  When we purchased the house we knew the existing one was in horrible condition and would need to be replaced pretty quickly with all the spots rotting away.  It lasted 33 years so I think that ol' deck did pretty darn good.  Fast forward 4 weeks (yes, I said four weeks) and we had a brand new deck to enjoy.  While we enjoyed the deck, the dogs enjoyed running under the deck in circles and attempting to dig to China... Slade probably got to South Carolina before we realized it was getting to be too much of a mess.  Over the weekend T and his dad added lattice around the bottom of the deck.  We are happy campers.  Slade is angry.  Fenway doesn't care, he would rather run to chase the squirrels up the trees.

I about died when I saw this was how they were making cuts at first!

Progress

More progress

Other side. Done. 

Lattice is apparently hard work.... as if an all day job.  I figured measure every piece needed, make cuts, attach, then measure trim pieces, cut, and attach?  I can't complain, it's done :)

So now what to do with the mud pits at the corners of the deck?  This happens each time it rains and then the dogs get their paws filthy.  My only thought is stone/brick?

***Remember I said "fast forward four weeks and we had a new deck"?... Well what we were told would take (and agreed to) two (max of three) day rebuild of our deck turned into four weeks.... Four weeks of each day we had to call the contractor to ask if they were coming, countless days when they didn't show up until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and most days it was one man.  We even had to call our realtor that sold our house to us to get him to finish the work.... yes, our favorite realtor in the whole world even helped us out three months after the house was sold (if you are in the Raleigh area, message me and I'll give you her name).  Needless to say we made sure the deck was complete and never want to deal with that contractor again.