so ive been living in my house for around 2 years. i have an inground pool (we bought the house, and the pool came with it) and as it looks right now, i have the ground slopes away from the pool down into my yard. so imagine if you will, about 10 ft. from the edge of the pool to the fence, on the left side of the pool and top side of the pool. so make an L shape around the left side and wrap around the top and you get the picture.
anyway, that L section is wasted space. i cant do anything with it, and the grass around it grows up real fast. but of course since it slopes, its almost impossible to mow, so i have to weed eat the freakin thing. so after talking it over with my wife, we decided that we need a deck around it to truly make good use of the space and to up the value of our house. this will include a wooden fence up around the pool as well.
so...long story short....i had a guy come out and give me an estimate....
wait for it.....
$15,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
holy crap. i was thinking, the max i want to pay is around $6000. but no, more than double of what i thought. now granted, the contractor i had to come out and look at my house to build the deck is the very first one, and he is supposedly one of the high end of contractors. he builds for several of the bigger houses around the city so i expected it to be high, but not THAT HIGH!!! geez. im going to get some more estimates, but im starting to think that regardless of how ignorant and afraid i am of building the deck myself, im starting to consider it after hearing the first estimate.
If you want some fun irony, work on some card buildings while the workers are doing your real stuff outside. You will NEVER complain about WWG's prices after THAT! 
) Its the surfer dudes that get bit. Go to a Ft. pierce surfing tournament and your bound to see an attack. But it ain't like Jaws, no "Alex kitner" drama, usually just stiches. I want to see half a surfbord wash up like in Australia or California. ( I admit, don't like surfers, they were always mean to me when I fished the beach as a kid, called "Lame" and "not cool"!)