The deck in our backyard has needed a makeover since we moved into our house almost 9 years ago.  The size of the deck is great and the stain was probably beautiful at some point in the past.  Over the years of rain, kids, wear, and dogs, it has seen better days.  The deck itself is in fairly good shape, with just a few boards that needed replacing, but the stain really needed some TLC.  We have a fairly large deck.  The photo below only shows a portion of it.  The deck also wraps around the back of the house.  It’s a lot of space, and I’ve always been reluctant to tackle it.  Well, when the weather man called for a full week of dry weather, I knew I had to jump on it!

We started by pressure washing the whole thing and replacing a few boards.

Side story:
My sister owns the truck in the family, so whenever I need dirt, sod, lumber, or furniture, I call her.  So, after her run one day, she stopped by to pick me up and take me to our local lumber store.  As we were standing in line, the man in front of us finished up his order and the salesperson said, “It’s just so refreshing when someone actually knows how to order lumber.”  At that point we both burst out laughing! You can only image how unimpressed he was with us! Oh, and we had to go back twice because I ordered the wrong thing the first time. My sister’s such a good sport!

Back to the deck:
Once it was clean and pressure washed, we had to wait a few days for it to dry out.

(Cooper is always trying to photobomb my pictures!)

We used a new product called Behr DeckOver.  Hindsight, I wish I would have contacted Behr first and asked if they’d like to sponsor this little project.  It has been the talk of the cul-de-sac and also the talk of my recent backyard party.  It seems everyone is ready for a little deck update and they are all very interested in my opinions of this product.  Oh, well.  Hind sight is always 20/20.  So, for this project we started with 4 cans of DeckOver, which I thought would be plenty.  Turns out we needed 6 cans.  It was $34 per can at Home Depot, with a $5 rebate per can. 

We started with all of the hard parts like benches, skirting on the deck, and underneath the benches.  Then we moved on to cracks and crevices.  You can actually use the DeckOver to fill in cracks, which is pretty cool.  It’s also pretty time consuming, so I didn’t do too many areas.  Once we started with the rolling, it went pretty quickly.  We ended up doing three coats because after the second coat, when I was touching up a few spots, the paint didn’t dry evenly and it really bugged my hubby.  I think I could have lived with it, but I know it would have driven him nuts.  Yes, I love him enough to re-roll the entire thing!  It took several more hours, but I think it looks great.

Here’s the deck with the outdoor furniture on it.

We’re ready for a party!
By the way, it comes in 54 colors.  This one looked the best with our house color and furniture.  It’s called Coffee.

Whew!  That was a big job.  I think my deck chairs are calling my name.

I’ll let you know how DeckOver holds up to dogs, kids, and parties.  For now, I’ll be resting and nursing my injuries on the new deck.

One more side story:
Apparently pressure washers get really hot, and I have two large burns on my leg to prove it.  I also have multiple blisters from spending so much time with a roller and paint brush in my hand.  Oh, and I fell in the window when I was trying to get off the roof after washing the skylights.  I had to wash the skylight before I painted the deck because I didn’t want to get the new deck wet and dirty.  There you have it.  That’s why I’ll be on the deck chairs nursing my injuries.

Happy painting!
 

As my sister says, “It’s almost time to quit whining about the rain and start whining about the heat!”  Steve Pool (our local weatherman) told us that today will be the last day of rain for a while.  Then we’re ready for summer!  It’s supposed to be in the 80’s for at least a week, after today.  A dry deck means I can get a little work done!

I started pressure washing yesterday afternoon.  Luckily my kids love to help.

 

Lucky for me, they are good little workers. 

We pressure washed all of the benches, nooks, crannies, skirting on the deck, and the long walkway.  All that was left, when my hubby got home, was to move the furniture, repair a board, and finish the main part of the deck.  He’s such a good sport!  He got right to work after dinner.  I’d say that Cooper was a good helper too, but that spot he’s sitting in is actually the bald patch where we just planted new grass seed.  Thanks Cooper.

The herb pot, just outside my kitchen window, didn’t exactly want to be moved.  It fell apart as soon as we pulled it away from the house.  I replanted the herbs and now I’ll have to find new pots for my kitchen garden/herbs.

  Ooooh… there’s my little pressure washer in the corner of the picture below.  It was a gift from my hubby.  Yes, you read that right.  I told him my Mother’s Day wishlist included a hanging basket, rolling compost bin, or pressure washer.  I also told him he could choose the gift and I would be able to tell how much he loved me based on the gift.  He chose the right gift.  He loves me!  Realistically, we REALLY needed this and my hubby always asks for Costco gift cards for his birthday.  He has every intention of buying himself a pressure washer or some fun new tool, but when it comes down to it, he usually buys chicken or toilet paper with his gift cards. It was needed at our house and having a clean, pressure washed, house makes me really, really, really happy. 

Now, back to that project.  So, I got the whole family helping and then I took off to find my camera.  (That’s the way I roll.)

I caught this little guy relaxing in the grass.

He gets a little concerned when we do projects like this and I think he was just feeling sorry for himself out in the yard.

We finished up around 8:30 last night.  The deck is clean and just needs to dry.  Hopefully it will stop raining soon.  We’ll give it 2 days to dry and then we’ll give it a fresh new look.  We’re using a new Behr product called DeckOver, from Home Depot.  It’s fairly new, so there weren’t a lot of reviews out there.  We’re going to give it a try!  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Happy pressure washing!