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!

Get your color on!

Sherwin Williams Biltmore Buff worked wonders in the kitchen

While the painters were dealing with our wallpaper nightmare, I needed to quick choose a color scheme.  I got books and magazines from the library, searched the 'net and ended up with so much information and choices I sort of froze.  Blankly staring at the selection of whites at the paint store was downright frightening. 

Sherwin Williams Cupola Yellow: warm and rich

Our previous home had off-white walls throughout and I wanted to try color, but I was completely intimidated.  It took me a really long time to pick colors.  The staff at our local Sherwin Williams store were quite helpful and so was our painter.  The one saleslady said that if you hold two colors up together the one shouldn't overpower the other.  I found it pretty hard to tell if colors were similiarly saturated, to be honest, but in the end I figured out a color scheme, sort-of. 

The main rooms and corridors of the house are warm creams and golds, which is sort of funny 'cuz I don't actually like yellows very much but I like what we went with.  The bedrooms and bathrooms are greens and blues.

One of the kids is a rainbow fanatic-I painted this myself

We made some mistakes though.  We shouldn't have listened to all that "these are the trends now" stuff.  Instead of opting for semi-gloss, or at least a satin, we went with flat paint in the living room, hallways and kitchen.  We had been told that people preferred the flat look.  Big mistake.  We've got kids and pets so within the year, the walls showed more dirt and stains than I ever imagined possible.  (Of course, we are probably rougher on our domicile than the average owners...I found child-sized footprints 5' up on the hallway walls.  Don't ask me how; I don't know.) 
The painters did the majority of the rooms but since the kids wanted multiple colors on their walls I did the bedrooms myself.  It saved us money and the kids really liked their fancy walls. 

Thank goodness we didn't listen when everyone told us to go with one of the "in" wall textures.  We opted for the sand, which is relatively easy to re-texture if you have holes in the walls.  Since we've painted, there's been a few.  I guess that's why people do their electrical work first before painting.  Oh well, live and learn...

The original white walls made the fireplace look garish

Didn't think I would but I LOVE this color!

The two toughest rooms were the den and the kid's bathroom.  The den has a fieldstone fireplace with a lot of pink and orange in it; not very attractive.  I wanted to mute that awful combo and went with a grayed-out green.  I think it turned out pretty nice. 

The kid's bathroom had blue fixtures of various hues and a white laminate counter.  Remodeling the bathrooms is way down on our list of priorities so I had to get a color that would tone down the bright blue toilet and tub and dark blue tile.  With the support of our painter, I decided to try a CRAZY shade of lime green (SW6703 Frolic) that turned out absolutely perfect!  I love it; it actually makes me feel happy when I look at it.