Deck Overhaul

In the past two years, we have used our deck at about 1% capacity. The first summer we lived in our house, it was the piling ground for everything we were tearing out. Handy, but not so enjoyable. Besides, I was in the last two months of pregnancy, and I wasn't much for sitting around in the heat. The second summer, we had a baby who still had not slept through the night even once, and we were working really hard on finishing up the inside of the house. We had no time or energy to work on the outside of the house. Besides, it was the hottest summer in over twenty years, so the air conditioning was our best friend.

This year, though...we have been on the deck almost every single morning and afternoon. We have had gorgeous weather this summer. As I write this, it's about 75 degrees outside, the high is 80, and the windows are open with fresh air blowing through my house canceling out the diaper smell I'm starting to catch a whiff of (so I think I'll just keep ignoring it and finish this post :)). We have worked really hard to do outside projects- landscaping the sides and back, cutting down a tree, preparing for a swingset (which has shipped and is on its way! yay!), installing new windows, and making the deck a really nice place to be!

The previous owners had painted it a mixture of bright blue, white, and dirt. Yes. I said dirt. It was actually such a mess we thought we would just tear it off and build a new one. And then other priorities came, we power-washed it, realized it was in good condition just UGLY, and we decided to keep it around.

Here it is before in all its three-toned glory: 

We couldn't get the blue and white paint off without a lot of sanding, and there were various other problems. So I ended up painting the entire thing a dark gray, which I ended up loving!

Then nothing happened to it all winter... or spring... but when summer vacation hit, and I had a little extra time, this was the FIRST project:

• We power-washed and stained some deck furniture my parents were getting rid of.
• We installed a new patio door (not a necessary step for all, but ours was held together by pink duct tape... :))
• We installed new lights on the outside of the house.
• We found super-cute cushions on clearance at K-Mart
• I brought out some lanterns and things we already had in the house to decorate
• We installed some flower boxes, and I put flowerpots all over the place to make it happy

The last thing I wanted was some sort of outdoor rug. My friend Rachel had painted her own previously, so I decided to do that and save some money.

Step 1: I bought one of these outdoor rugs at Menards for $9.99

 Step 2: I used regular wall-paint that we had leftover from painting our entire house, so that was free! We sat down to watch a movie, and I truly thought it would only take me that time to paint the rug. Two chevron stripes and two hours later, I realized that the paint soaked in a lot and that this was going to take awhile. 

 The next day, I completely disregarded my earlier thought to measure and make the stripes painstakingly the same, and I just started going with the zig-zag flow. It was soooo much easier and faster! I also ended up just using this cardboard piece to paint around to create the straight lines. Much easier than free-handing or taping.

 Step 3: Enjoy! It took about 10 hours total to make, but that included trying to keep a toddler and a kitty off the rug. Sawyer wouldn't walk on it for days afterwards-  I think I scarred him for life.

Finished Product!

I was not successful at keeping the kitty off at all times...

I finally let Sawyer walk in the paint and walk on the rug (with assistance), and it's my favorite part!

After!

 

 

We have spent some time out there every day of this summer, and it is one of our favorite places about our house now. I am SO glad we made it a priority this summer to make it a happy place.