Staining the Deck

Last week I started stripping the deck of the old stain and color.  It started out as an exciting project - YEAH!  Oh, My, Goodness!  Wow, that is a lot LOT of work.  It took days.  Pressure washing and then hand scrapping the stain that could chip off.  You know what I mean.  Well, I don't think it's actually a job that has an end date, because just as I would finish one area and start another I'd see something in the previous area that I missed ... and this is how it went for a few days.  Finally, I decided enough was enough and that I had done "good enough."  I pulled out the new stain.

The thing is ... the new stain is an entirely NEW color.  I decided to be BOLD and BRAVE.  I changed the back deck color to Wedgewood Blue - yes, that's right, blue.  At first I was so scared - really scared that I had made a terrible mistake, but then after I painted the steps I loved it.  It was different and would probably take some getting used to, if you were expecting natural or the burgundy we had before but it was a beautiful contrast to the white and an absolute compliment to the grey in the brick.  Just as I finished the 5 steps, the clouds rolled in so I had to clean up shop.

Then, it rained the next day, and the next day and the next day, ... then it was Sunday.  Finally, on Monday I stained about 1/2 of it, and then on Tuesday, July 9 I decided (no matter what) I was going to finish it.  I had to scrape more before I could stain, but as promised to myself, I finished the first coat of the deck by 9:15 (dusk).  Done by Dusk!!!  YEAH!!!

The patio a year later

It looks great!  I will need to apply another coat the make sure the colors stays, but I'm so happy!

The new deck