Deck Do-0ver...

Feeling a little dingy

Even with all the plants I potted and had sitting on my front porch (which is a small deck), it looked a little beat up.  The lovely plants and wonderful weather overwhelmed me and made me want to continue to freshen up the entry area to my home. So, first I had to clear off the deck and then it was time to use a pressure washer.  I had never used one before, but my husband was kind enough to get me set up and started with a quick run through.  The front porch looked very dingy to me even after cleaning it with a deck & fence cleaner we picked up at Home Depot.

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I had originally picked "wood chip" but once the store mixed it, I ended up with "padre brown" since their mixer had been making everything a shade darker than they intended. I told them it would work fine for me, that I would just pay for it & use it anyway.

Before I cleaned the deck off, I had made a trip to pick up some new paint for it.  Since, the decks had always been painted a natural cedar (orangey) color, I thought it was time to change things up a bit.  Considering that dirt & scuff marks might not be as noticeable if the deck were a darker color, I opted for a darker brown.  I wanted a full-coverage, opaque stain, so BEHR's Deckover product would be great.

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After a fresh coat of white on the railing.

With just a paintbrush, an old can of acrylic outdoor white for the railing, and a can of the Deckover for the floor, I was ready to get to work.  It took me all of last Saturday, but I got the front porch (deck) finished.  No insects claimed my life even though they scared me a few times.

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Before & After Shots

This pic was taken after I finished everything.

So, then Sunday I moved on to the back deck.  Seriously, it took me the whole day to power wash and then repaint/touch-up the white railing around it.  I only re-painted where it really needed it.

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Painting continued on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I just finished up this morning (Thursday).  Yes, it took a lot of time, but I did it all by hand with just a paintbrush.  Why, you might ask?  Because, I wanted to really get in all the cracks and along all the edges with paint.  A roller wouldn't have done as good of a job or put the paint on quite as smoothly.  How do I know?  I've tried before.  Are my paint-jobs perfect?  No, but I think my projects look 100% better than they did before I started.  :)

More photos

All done

Now, I'm feeling a bit more experienced with exterior paint projects...yep, I've painted these decks at least twice by myself since we moved here.  Would I want to paint the exterior of my home?  No way!  Heights kinda freak me out and it seems worse the older I get.  We paid someone to do that a couple years ago and I would gladly pay someone to paint my house again the next time, too.  LOL