Dream Deck Not So Dreamy

Our newly painted deck and the
portable chaises that are part of my deck dream

One of the reasons we bought this house was because of its deck, overlooking the woody wilderness that is our backyard. It runs the length of the house and there are two patio doors that open on to it, one from the former den (now part of the kitchen) and also one from the master bedroom, which I thought was REALLY cool.

I envisioned peaceful mornings slipping from my bed, sliding open the patio door to a chorus of birdsong and sunshine, and relaxing on a chaise before the rest of the house wakes up. (It hasn't actually worked out like that but in theory, it could.)

Supposedly the previous owners let their dog use the
deck as a potty in the winter, wrecking the stain job

The deck certainly wasn't one of the things we thought we'd have to tackle right away but it was. Turns out my youngest could easily fit through the railings, which she delighted in demonstrating to me as I hyperventilated in fear (it's a two-story drop). There was also a gate blocking access to a steep staircase but it turned out to be rotted and broke away when we tried opening it. And that wasn't the only rotted wood either; there were several floor boards that were rotted too and the paint/stain was chipped, bubbling and generally missing from action in large spots.

We referenced the state building code when
determining how close to place the new spindles

Fixing the deck railings became priority number one. Not only were they spaced incorrectly but many were also bent or otherwise damaged. We took almost all of them off, and put new spindles on. It ended up being much more time-consuming than we expected. My husband had to miter the tops of the new spindles to match the ones we kept and it was difficult connecting them while hanging off the side of the deck. Still he got it done and even the smallest tot won't be able to fit their head through.



Originally, only the inside of the deck was painted,
which looked pretty bad from the yard



We then hired a contractor to power wash it, hoping to strip the old stuff away. Instead, it put big gouges in the wood and also stripped some stain from our siding as well. Our painting contractor told us you NEVER try to strip paint from wood by power washing it. Lesson learned.

Anyhow, the deck was strangely painted only on the sides you could see from inside the house, leaving the rest of the wood exposed to the elements. According to the same painter, if the wood is gray/bleached, that means the cells are dead. Still he said that the deck wasn't in too bad of shape; we replaced the rotted boards and he re-cleaned the deck and prepped it for staining.

We chose Sherwin Williams "Monterey Tan" solid color stain because I thought it would like nice with the grayish green trunks of the trees. It took two coats to cover the previous color, "navajo red," and this time the painters painted the outside of the deck as well as the part you could see from the house.

Now we only need to fix the gate and then I can let the cats and or small nieces/nephews out on the deck without fear of losing them over the sides or their heads getting stuck between the rails and having to saw them out (don't laugh; it happened to my mom when she was little...ok, you can laugh). The painter said the stain we used will last 8 years so I marked my calendar for five years to repaint. Now on to the next crisis!