The Deck is Done!!!

My husband is a true rock star. When we looked at this house last summer, the deck was painted baby blue. While it wasn't the favorite color choice for either of us, it wasn't horrible. It also looked to have been done recently, so we figured that the previous owners had spruced up the deck to entice buyers, just as they had painted the inside walls.

Unfortunately, after only one winter of Minnesota snow, the paint all started peeling, like this:

We think that perhaps they used non-waterproof paint. Anyway, we obviously didn't want our deck looking like that, so we decided to tackle the project together... and then I shortly thereafter found out that I was pregnant and learned that pregnant ladies aren't really supposed to sand and stain. So poor Mike was left to do the job alone.

We started around Easter. Literally EVERY SINGLE EVENING that has been nice enough weather (and some that have been broiling hot rather than nice), Mike has been outside working on the deck. While he did spend some time power washing, the majority of the time (like 3 months worth!) was spent sanding. Like this:

And this, with the detail sander that was his Father's Day gift:

This was the deck after Mike got the rails all sanded down but hadn't done much to the floor.

Mike's next step was stripping the paint. Which is an arduous, smelly task that doesn't really remove all the paint as easily as you would think. This picture shows the floor after he stripped it... much less blue, but still enough that he couldn't just be done there.

So Mike was back to sanding (again), and he got the deck looking beautiful and clean. It actually looked like brand-new wood if you didn't get close enough to see the leftover blue between the boards where he couldn't sand.

And the fun part? Staining! This shows the finished railing (but not floor),

and these last pictures are the finished deck! Isn't it gorgeous?!

See? I TOLD you my hubby is a rock star! (Now we just need to get a grill and some deck furniture to compliment all that hard work!)