Finishing the Deck

This weekend, right in time for some absolutely gorgeous spring weather, we accomplished a project that we have been waiting to do since we moved in - staining the deck.

We decided on white with gray floorboards. The inspiration was the front porches on the Charleston style homes we have seen. There is a lot of differing opinions on doing a light color stain and we will see if we end up regretting it, but for now we are very happy and I think it matches the house better than a dark wood stain.

Here is the best before shot I could find although it doesn't show the whole deck:

First K sprayed the white. This was the most time consuming part of the process and took about 2 1/2 hours to cover all the spindles and rails. From looking at this picture, it is no wonder that his calves are still burning:

After the white was done, I came in (with some handy reinforcements that showed up) and hand painted the floorboards in the gray. I don't have a picture of that because my hands were covered in stain so we'll skip to the after. Here is the deck after drying and putting the furniture back on:

Our family likes it so far:

And we celebrated with a nice Sunday BBQ.

Now we are just going to add a little bistro table and possibly an outdoor rug.

Next weekend landscaping is on the agenda.