Deck Success!!

Yay for successful days! We paused the door project (I've almost gotten used to living without interior doors) and took advantage of the overcast day to work on staining the deck. We used Wolman's DuraStain. Originally we bought semi-transparent, but quickly realized we weren't getting the coverage we wanted. So we went back and exchanged it for a solid stain. We ended up needing about 2 and 1/2 gallons for our deck plus the railing.

To begin the project, Mike taped off around the house to make sure we didn't get any unwanted marks on the sides of the house. (NOTE: Mike also power washed the deck with a basic stain remover and also sanded down the really tough spot spots. He also prepped by making sure all the nails were secure.)

We then painted the railing first in case we got any drips onto the floorboards. This was particularly difficult for us because of how close the bushes are planted to the railing. Let's pause for these hilarious pictures:

Great - now that we've got that out of the way I can continue. For painting the railings, we bought 3" deck staining brushes, and Mike bought a 6" brush for the deck itself.

So here's the big reveal - our OFFICIAL Before&After's:

Woohoo!! Now all we need is deck furniture (as Mike yells "A GRILL!" in the background)!