The deck

Back in the early 1990's, we had an amazing deck. I'm talking 800 square feet of amazing deck. It was already more than 10 years old when we left, so it was no surprise that another 10 years later, it was rotting out and needed to be replaced. It's a long, sad story, but after much effort, money, and materials, we have a lovely, large, but a bit quirky, deck. With the great weather we've had this summer, and because we wanted to use it right away, restoring the deck was high on our list.

The posts had some very healthy moss growing!

The steps and posts (gray) are synthetic Nexwood, left over from a failed attempt to rebuild the deck in 2005. The floor and rails are cedar. Different materials added to our challenge.

First, good friend, Gerry Kosanovic, brought his industrial power washer and cleaned deck, rails, picnic table... and even some siding and the front walk!

The power washing before/after pics are always dramatic.

A few weeks later, we had a sanding party, and with rented floor sander and several power sanders, the deck floor, rails, and picnic table were all looking almost like new.

Wendy, Bruce, and Aaron spent the next few weeks priming, staining, and painting. We stained the cedar,

painted the entry and steps,

 and Aaron even painted our white security doors to better match the house.

Now we have a beautiful outdoor space! Yes, we know the colors don't all match each other, but stain and paint are just plain different!