Hard work goes a LONG way...

TheWhen we moved into this old farm house almost four years ago, I had a list a mile long of projects to complete!  I have tackled quite a few of those projects, but keep adding new ones!  I decided that with this last nice week of good weather, I would tackle our wooden deck/porch.  This sounded like a quick and easy project...I was wrong!

To start, I headed to our local Lowe's.  I spoke with a very knowledgeable lady about how to care for a neglected deck.  She led me to a wonderful product!  She told me NOT to power wash my deck, which I was planning on doing!  She took me down an aisle to the Olympic Deck Wash.  I can't describe the awesomeness of this product!  I simply poured the product into a garden sprayer (which I also purchased), then I simply sprayed the entire surface of the wooden deck with the Deck Wash.  I sprayed the spindles, the floor, everything!  I had so much fun!  I may have gotten a bit carried away though.  I went through THREE of the bottles of Deck Wash.  These were 2-1/2 gallons EACH!  Thankfully, I have a bit left and can do our wooden doors and our pool deck.  Whew!




I was instructed to let is set for about 15 minutes, then hose it off, which I did.  I then had to let it set for a few days to ensure that the surface was dry.  We had a couple downpours, which really put me behind schedule!

Then my porch went from being old, dingy, grimy and slick when it rained (because of mildew I'm guessing) to this bare, dry, stripped down wood.  It was an improvement, but still, it needed some major work!

So back to Lowe's I went, for more advice!  Wow!  There sure are a LOT of options for paints, stains, etc!  I was overwhelmed, to say the least!  I am SO thankful for my wonderful Mom who helped me out!  We finally settled on a chocolate stain, so the wood grain would still show through.  Our roof is brown, our house is white.  We did shutters and storm doors in black, so we figured the wood deck should match the roof to tie it all in.  It was an awesome choice!

It took us THREE days just to stain the deck!  It is 200 square feet of beauty now!  Before, it was an embarrassment!  Lol!

Here is a link to the stain that we purchased.  It is AMAZING!  I can't stress this enough!




So, now that the deck is done...who wants to see pictures?!?!  Be prepared to be amazed!

The BEFORE, with the water hose...

The DURING, the left side is stripped bare, the right side has some lovely stain on it!

(Notice the floor is still bare!) 😬

Here are toe shots of the DURING awhile I was staining the deck.

The floor AFTER!!!!!

The lovely railing! It's just beautiful!

Ok,so there's a little 'how-to' and maybe it will inspire you to tackle a project!!!!!