Backyard Updates

Hi Nesters...I'm back! It's been a little crazy lately with busy work weeks and even busier weekends but here I am, filling you in on my life lately.

Nest updates. Weekend happenings. Cookin' recipes. {stay tuned}

Remember this post? It's actually now been a few weeks since our labor-intensive weekend updating our backyard and deck. Adam and I were exhausted. And although there aren't any pretty plants or flowers in the ground, there's a HUGE difference and we love our "new" backyard and deck.

Here are a few "before" photos. Before, it was stained shortly after Adam moved in. I take full blame for choosing a color that was too dark and weathered quickly.

{warning: this post may be a little boring, but informative to those who are interested in desk stains.

Just scroll through the photos if you aren't.}

By the way, the cute big carpenter bees that "don't sting" do other damage...they eat wood {giving them the name carpenter bees}. If I'm the only one that didn't know that, I must be crazy. They make perfect {seriously, perfect} holes in wood and nest inside. Annoying. So we bought some carpenter bee spray at Lowes and went to town spraying the holes. Be careful, most holes still have bees inside...they will come flying out mad. Then we had to fill the holes with wood filler and sand those puppies down. A lot of work for those silly bees. If you notice holes in your wood and see the "saw dust" nearby, you should quickly follow the steps above.

Damage from the pups...

There were a few lessons to be learned during the process. I hope to help one of you out if you own a home with a wood deck.

1. Think long and hard before staining unfinished wood. Do your research. Know what type of stain to use and which opacity. Most stains come in transparent, semi-transparent, semi-solid, and solid. There are also TONS of colors that look different depending on what type of wood you have. And get this...the darn stain companies don't sell sample sized cans! Why?! I am writing them with this suggestion.

2. Although it may cost you a little more, buy a gallon of the color you think you like and test it on a few areas before going with the whole deck {why a whole gallon? read #1}. If you know you will do more than one coat of stain, let the test area dry, then put your additional layer on. Do this until you achieve the look you want. I'm not a tester. I'm impatient. With a project this big, patience is key. Here is our "test" spot. You can see where the stain stripper left the wood with polka dots. Thankfully the stain covered them.

3. If you are re-staining a deck {let's say you move into a pre-owned home with a deck that needs to be re-freshed. Or you had an "oops" with the first color}, please consider a few things:

A. Is the original color light or dark? If it is really dark and you want to go with a lighter color, you will have to strip the original stain. This is what we had to do and we thought we were going to die. Just being honest. I would re-consider your color.

B. If you are going darker in color or you are considering a semi-transparent or semi-solid color, you won't have the strip the original color.

4. Check the weather. If you put in all the hard work to pressure wash and strip the original color, you have to wait at least overnight for it to dry. If it rains, you may have to do this {see below}. We had to buy a ton of plastic drop cloths to cover the dry deck while it rained. Not good.

5. Rent a paint sprayer. These machines can be rented at a local tool rental store or at most Home Depot or Lowes stores. It's really simple, just ask how to use it. Most connect to a 5 gallon bucket. Mix all of your gallons of stain the bucket together to ensure the stain will coat evenly.  With spraying, protecting the areas you don't want stained is key. This takes extra long to cover and tape off, but worth any accidents during the process. Do it right. {Harlee helped}

I think I went through a couple of cans of bug spray that weekend. Sweat, bug spray and stain...it was a great combo for the skin.

Here's the sprayer that saved us many hours of brushing!

And here is Harlee...too bad he couldn't help.

Here is the finished deck at night. We went with a Cabot semi-transparent in Driftwood Gray.

It appears lighter in this photo.

Photos before the new fence.

During the fence installation.

Completed fence! We love the way it turned out.

And for any of you who thought this girl doesn't do manual labor, think again. I have proof. This pile of limbs and shrubs was pulled and cut by yours truly. It was something serious.

Here's the finished backyard

{minus the plants we haven't planted, think hydrangeas and wildflowers...one day}.

I planted ferns for my outdoor table using a copper bucket as the pot.

Another fabulously easy DIY project - spray paint old outdoor furniture! The Flemings gave us a"hand-me-down" outdoor set that was a faded hunter green. Lowes has some fabulous spray paint options. I used a few coats of the brown hammered metal Krylon paint and it made the furniture look brand new!

To celebrate our hard work and new backyard, Adam smoked a pork butt on the Big Green Egg. He knows how to barbecue.

 Check out his set-up. He's such a chef and it was delish.

Stay tuned for more updates.